


Our Hearts Will Tell

by Christyslsb (chrissylsb)



Category: Frozen (2013), elsanna - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Medical, Past Violence, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-03-10 08:27:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 35
Words: 76,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3283658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrissylsb/pseuds/Christyslsb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern AU. Elsanna no-incest. Elsa Winters is a new cardiac surgeon in town. If there something she sknows, is how the heart works. Despite this she's called Ice Queen. Will there be someone who thaws her frozen heart? Maybe a redhead could help bringing a bit of Summer. (Rating may change in the next chapters)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy the story, the first chapters will not be as long as you'd like.. but I hadn't had much time when I started this fanfic. Plus, I'm Italian so there could be some mistakes I didn't see, if so, please let me know.  
> Originally I posted it on Fanfiction.net with the same name, I'll write the link of the story on the note in the end of the chapter.   
> I do not own Frozen or the other characters on this story.
> 
> Enjoy!

_Arendelle General Hospital_. Elsa Winters begins her first day of work in this hospital. She's a cardiac surgeon who moved from Southerisland Hospital. She's not a very sociable person, but when it comes to work she's one of the best in her field. Despite her young age she's one of the nation's most prominent cardiac surgeons.

"Dr. Winters? Hello, my name is Kai Summers, the Chief of surgery at this hospital, welcome. I hope you'll be fine here."

"Good morning and thanks. I hope it too."

"Unfortunately I have a meeting with the members of the Council and I can't make the tour of the hospital, but your intern will do it. He's coming now." A blond guy is running through the hall and he nearly collides with a nurse.

"Hello, I hope I'm not late, Kristoff Bijorman. You must be Dr. Elsa Winters. It's an honour to work with you." The boy extended his hand. She looks at it but she's holding her hands entwined at her lap and looks at the boy with a neutral air.

"Good morning, you're my intern? So you're under my responsibility, I hope that you have the right skills. I don't like trouble in my operation room." Kristoff looks at her speechless, instead the chief makes a grimace.

"Dr. Winters, he's one of the best interns we have, this is a  _teaching hospital_ , so I expect you to teach something useful to him. Now I have to go. Good day doctors."

"Well, then let's see where the Department of Cardiology is. Follow me."

The first few hours of the day pass with Kristoff showing Elsa the hospital.

"And here we have everyone's favourite place, the cafeteria. Compared to other hospitals here you eat really well, and everyone goes crazy for sweets, but you'll have the opportunity to find it out."

"The tour is over? Or there's other to see?"

"No. You saw everything. It'll take a while to settle in."

"Yes, it's a big hospital, but I think it's because it is a General Hospital and a teaching one. I also noticed the rooms where you can see the operations."

"Exactly, we have labs for research. Here we are very well equipped, if you want to do some clinical trial you're free to do so. Of course, first, you have to ask for a permission."

"Thank you Dr. Bijorman for the tour. Now it's time to make the rounds of patients who left me Dr.."

"Dr. Fritz. He was a great surgeon, he has taught much to many of us. It's sad that he's retired. He was loved by everyone."

"I didn't know him personally, so I can't know if he was so great as you said. Sooner or later comes to everyone the time of retirement." Kristoff is always more stunned by the new doctor. He can't imagine that a person so cold could existed, how can she be a doctor? What kind of relationship will she have with patients?

Elsa was born in a doctors' family. She's been raised as one of them, but her parents, or better her father has always been too strict with her, she wasn't allowed to be distracted, she had to study hard. He wanted her to be one of the best surgeons in the world. So instead of going to the park to play with the other girls, she went with her parents at medical conferences , or she stayed at the library studying the anatomy of the human body. His father, Joseph, wanted her to take neurology, but she decided as her mother Katherine: cardiology. Katherine tried to make her daughter an happy little girl, with the most normal childhood she could have. When Elsa was with her mother, she was happy because she could stay away a little from the study and have some fun. She loved her parents and when they died in a plane crash she was shocked and she's closed in herself, not allowing anyone to approach her. Except when it's absolutely necessary, as in the OR, where it's needed dialogue between colleagues.

Kristoff on the other hand is a solar and sociable guy. A strange combination, but maybe that's why the Chief wanted this combination with these two. Kai knows about Elsa's reputation, and he hopes that in this hospital it will be better for her, and maybe the presence of Kristoff might be useful.

Or not.

As expected, in the early days for Elsa is a little difficult to settle in, and the thing that makes it even more complicated is her tenacity of not asking for directions or help from others.

 _'This hospital is totally different from Southerisland, here everyone is smiling, help, it's like a big family. I don't think I'll be able to settle in very well.'_ . While she's making the rounds of patients alone, she recognize the voice of a boy who's screaming. ' _No, this place isn't for me. Bijorman should be the best of the interns?'_

"Dr. Winters, I'm sorry for the delay, but my car didn't want to work."

"Take it to the mechanic. Prepare the patient of 24-B, we have gotten confirmation from the transplant center: they found a compatible heart."

"Really!? That's a wonderful news! Finally the little Meggy will get her new heart and can play soccer again."

"First we need to see if she doesn't reject the new organ. Prepare her and let her know about the procedure, then you'll come with me at the Westgard Hospital."

Kristoff sends her a look _'She's like a robot. Is she even human?'_. After informing the family of the little girl, he and Elsa went to take the heart: it's healthy, compatible and they'll operate soon.

"Bijorman, wash yourself, you'll be with me in the OR, I hope you know how to transplant a heart."

"Yes, but I've never operated before."

"You'll be my second. If you follow what I say we shouldn't have problems. Don't be late."

The operation goes well, Meggy seems to respond well to the new organ. While Kristoff is enjoying his lunch, Elsa continues to read the cases of the other patients of Dr. Frits, she's drinking some chocolate.

"Ehy Kristoff! So, today was the Day!" A redhead approaches the boy, hugging him. Her voice could be heard miles away. ' _Who's the one that screams so much?'_. Elsa in't near Kristoff's table but she can listen what the girl is saying without any problems.

"Anna! Heart transplant in a 12-year-old girl, all went well. But.. what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the University? It's you senior year, you should follow the lessons!"

"Well today there was nothing interesting, and mom told me that you had a big operation today with.. How you call her? The Ice Queen? Why you call her like that? You don't tell me anything!" Elsa hears the comment  _'They call me like that here too.'_.

"Well, she's a little bit off.. cold with people, so I assume this is way they call her like that. But she's very good at her job."

"So tell me, tell me! Who is she? Where is she? Is she here?"

"Yes Anna, she's here. See that blonde over there at that table who's reading? It's her."

"Ooh she's pretty." Elsa can't help but to listen, the tone of her voice was too high. ' _Wait.. what? She said..'_  "But I don't think she's your type. I think that Mandy..."

"ANNA!" Kristoff blushes and tries to make her shut up. Mandy is a pediatric nurse, who's sitting a few table away from the guy. He's in love with her but she doesn't know yet.

"So cousin... when will you ask her out?" Elsa gets up and goes to the boy, she notices the redhead's mouth, that is wide open. ' _She could swallow a fly if she continues to keep her mouth like that.'_.

"Bijorman. Go check the patient of 24-B and see how are the parameters. I don't want that the heart could have some problems while you're chatting."

"Right on my way. See you Anna."

"Bye bye. Be a good doctor!" Anna turns to the doctor who stands near her. "Hi, you're the boss of Kristoff? Sometimes he's late, but that's because his car is a very old and he doesn't want to change it, he says he wants to wait and save money, but I think it's because the car brings him so many memories-"

"Excuse me, I don't think I can stand here and talk with you, I have patients to check. Have a nice day." And with that Elsa goes away. ' _Sure, she talks a lot. They say redheads are a little... well she has something different'_.

Anna gets up, takes the apple that is in Kristoff's plate and leaves.

" _Elsa Winters_... I think that was what was written on her coat. The name was hidden by her braid." she looks one more time the entrance of the hospital behind her and smiles. "I like her, she seems interesting."


	2. Chapter 2

Yesterday the little Meggy has received her new heart. Once Kristof finishes his shift he goes back home, instead Elsa is checking one other time all patients of the day. She enters in the various rooms and check the drip, the medical record, and asks the patient if it’s all right. She exites from the 23-B room, she approaches to the next one.

“Hey doc! You gave me a new heart!” She’s about to get up from the bed, but Elsa immediately goes to stop her and now she’s standing in front of the bed.

“You shouldn’t get out of bed. You should rest.”

“You’re attentive to me, you acts like a big sister, you could seem surly but you’re not. In my opinion it’s not true that you have a frozen hear.” She hugs Elsa and holds her little head right on the heart of the doctor. “Your heart beats, and you’re not even so cold as they say.. you can’t be bad, you gave me a heart.” Elsa is stunned for a moment, she doesn’t know what to do, this is the first time that she’s in a situation like that.

“Maybe it’s because I don’t talk much with others, tell me how do you feel?”

“I’m fine, I’m supposed to sleep but I couldn’t. It’s okay if you stay a little bit with me? Maybe if they see that you talk with me they stop calling you like that, although I don’t think they do it in a bad way. At my school there’s this boy Nicholas, who gives nicknames to everyone, but nobody is bothered, because we have fun together.”

“Well, sometimes children are more mature than adult people. I’d like to stay here, but I have to finish the round of visits.”

“Then I’ll wait for you! Finish it and then come back to me!” after a big smile of the little girl, Elsa nods and ends the rounds. She watches the clock ‘I don’t think she’s awake.” She goes into the room of Meggy.

“I knew you would have come!”

“What are you doing?” The little girl is sitting cross-legged on the bed and she’s looking at a book.

“Homework. Math. I’m here for a month..”

“I could help a bit, but that remains a secret between the two of us, then you go to sleep.”

So, she helps the girl with algebra, after almost an hour Meggy falls asleep. Elsa takes away the book, she tucks the blankets and she goes away. While leaving she hears the girl murmurs a “good night”. A nurse watches the doctors with a bit of curiosity. 

“Do you need something?” Elsa says. The nurse shakes his head and turns.

The days pass, Meggy is dismissed and there are various operations, Kristoff is always in the OR but few times Elsa allows him to make something significant, probably because she doesn’t trust his skills yet.

“Dr. Winters, a word please?”  Elsa is in the Chief Kai Summers’ Office. It is well lighted, there are some plants and numerous certificates on the walls. There are also photos, but from where she sits she can’t look at them. Not that she’s interested.

“How are you here? It’s been a month that you’re been working here.”

“I’m well, this hospital is very well supplied.”

“So tell me, why your intern hasn’t done an operation as first surgeon with her?”

“I’m not feeling comfortable letting him operate alone a patient yet.”

“Have I already told you that this is a teaching hospital?”

“Yes, you have. And I’m teaching him various techniques.”

“But he must operate sooner or later, or he will never become a surgeon. Just let him make a simple one, after all you’ll always be there to supervise. I’ve seen that you have some low relief operations.”

“Okay, maybe he’ll do one of those. With your permission, I have patients to check.” The Chief dismisses her and she leaves.

Although she prefers operates herself, she decides that it’s not appropriate to make the chief an enemy of her. She goes to the cafeteria where Kristoff is making a coffee break with some others interns.

“Bijorman. Today you’ll have your solo operation. I’ll be there to supervise. Try not to let me intervene. No mistakes.”

“Really!? Thanks you! I won’t disappoint you!” Kristoff highlights of joy for the opportunity that Elsa is giving him. She looks at him in a neutral way, his friends are cheering him up.

“Bijorman, we have to check the patient in the 13-H room. Say bye to your friends, here.” Some of the interns whispers “She’s such an Ice Queen, the rumours are real.”

Once they reach the patient’s room, Elsa lets Kristoff handles the whole situation. She knows that he’s prepared, he’s studying a lot, but she prefers to go cautiously, after all on the operating table there isn’t a mannequin, but a person in flesh and blood who has a family and she doesn’t want that something could possibly go wrong. After the guy has informed the patient of the procedure, he instructs the nurses about what pre operation’s drugs give to the patient.

Once everything is ready they goes to the OR number 4. Elsa checks that everything is in order in the room, like her routine. She needs to know that everything is in the right place, and everyone know their roles. While the equip is busy operating, from the room where other surgeons can watch, without their knowledge there is a familiar redheads. She keeps smiling watching her cousin’s first operation.

“What are you doing here?” the Chief’s approaching the readhead.

“Hi Dad, look! Kristoff’s hands are on that men chest.”

“Anna, you shouldn’t be here, you should be at the University. Skipping class, again?”

“Yeah.. sorry Dad, but I couldn’t not seeing my beloved cousin’s first solo surgery! He texted me. I couldn’t say no. Tomorrow I have lessons, I’ll go, pleaseeee let me stay here!”

“Fine, I guess I’ll stay too.” They hugged each others.

“Is she the Ice Queen?” Anna’s looking at the blond standing next to Kristoff with her hands behind her back, and a lovely cap _. ‘There are snowflakes on it. That’s s cute.’_

“Yes, but she’s very talented.” Anna keeps watching every movements the doctors are making. She whispers “I’d like to see her in action.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!   
> I hope you enjoy it

It’s been a week since the first solo operation of Kristoff. Elsa didn’t have to intervene, everything went smooth as oil and there were no complications post surgery. The blonde doctor remains in front of the Blackboard, where there are written every daily surgery in program. She has only 2 surgeries, a total of only 4 hours in the OR. Maybe it’s because she’s on duty in the ER. There operations are simple, maybe she could let them handle to Kristoff, so in that way the Chief shouldn’t have reason to complain.

“Bijorman, today you’re doing these surgeries.” The boy looks at her and smiles.

“Thanks, really, you can’t understand how much this makes me happy!”

“I’m not sure if you should be glad to open the chest of two patients, but perhaps you’re referring to the fact that in his way you’ll learn more.” And here’s that Kristoff’s smile disappears _‘She’s always so cold, is she an ice golem by any chance? It would be possible, her skin is so pale.’_. Elsa approaches the Blackboard and changes the name of the first surgeon from “Dr. Winters, E.” to “Dr. Bijorman, K.”. At that moment  the Chief walks by the two doctors. He stays behind the woman and he’s smug.

“Well, I see that here someone starts collecting solo’s surgeries. Good work, doctors.”

Kristoff goes in the room of the first patient of the day, he explains the procedure to him. Be a surgeon can be a monotonous work, checking medical records, the person, doing examinations, explaining procedures, cutting, sewing, keeping an eye on the parameters, making sure the procedure go well and then dismissing patients. Nevertheless he loves being a doctor, although his new boss is like a robot, he’s fine with that. She’s a great teacher, meticulous, she wants things to be done as they should be, she’s strict but the young intern won’t complain, after all he’s here to learn.

Once in the OR, after they wash themselves, Kristoff and Elsa are waiting for the anesthesia to have effect. The patient is asleep and Kristoff picks up the scalpel and makes an incision on the chest which had been prepared with tincture of iodine. Elsa stays there, observing every movement, every command of his intern. _‘He’s learning, good.’_. Once he has sewed up the patient, Elsa goes with Kristoff to inform the family members about how the surgery went. “Everything went well, now let’s see how he reacts in post surgery.”

There’s a break before the next operation, in the ER there are the usual bustle of people, but for now there isn’t anything for cardiac surgery. Kristoff went to get a coffee for him and Elsa. 

“Dr. Winters?” the woman looks at him. “I think you drink coffee latte, I’ve got one for you, because I saw that you looked tired.”

“I wasn’t tired, I was rereading the post operation of this morning, thanks you, but for now I won’t drink anything, you can give it to someone else.”

_ ‘Does she know that unknowingly she gave me a reason to talk to Mandy?’ _ Kristoff tries to hold back a smile and goes to the nurse.

“Hi Mandy.. would you like a coffee latte?” he hands the cup. She smiles.

“Oh Dr. Bijorman, how nice you are, thanks you.” she takes a sip of the drink and they sit at a table. “How was your morning? I saw you marked on the Board.”

“It went well, all quiet, the patient appears to reacting well, the heart wasn’t very stressed during the surgery.” they’re spending some time chatting with each other. Anyone who watches them would understand immediately that Kristoff is in love with the girl.

A distance of two tables there’s Elsa, who’s reading, she hears Kristoff laugh with that nurse. _‘He shouldn’t lose concentration, after the break he must work.’_. She sees the Chief who sits next to her.

“Winters. How is your intern going?”

“He arrives late often,” Elsa looks at the boy “but  I see that he works hard.” Kai smiles.

“He’s a guy who puts his heart and his soul into what he does. I’m glad that you’re doing what we all expect: teach.” Elsa watches her boss without giving him an answer to that statement. She was hired by a University Hospital, but it’s not been long since she was the intern. After the chief goes, the doctor returns to his reading, meanwhile Kristoff continues to chat with his beloved Mandy.

The second scheduled surgery of the day goes like the other, without complications, all quiet. Once the family members have been informed, Elsa sends Kristoff in ER to make some medications, for now she doesn’t need his assistance.  She told him to call her to pager if there’s an emergency.  She’s reading some article of medicine, despite having finished her studies and become an excellent surgeon her preparation will never stop: she has to keep updated. In life you’ll be always a student.

Kristoff goes to the ER, telling the head of the department that he’s there to help. He goes to do some sutures. The emergency room is one of the most loved place by interns (and residents too): everyone is looking for the right patient (the more critical or with something odd) and take that particular case. It’s like being at the market. Nevertheless, they’re all very human. Before Kristoff began his shift, in ER arrived an ambulance with a man who into his neck there was a screwdriver, he lost much blood but he was relatively stable. Unfortunately for the young assistant of Winters, he hasn’t arrived in time in order to follow that case. _‘Damn.. Maybe with the next ambulance will come something interesting, perhaps something cardiac, so it’s easier for me to get in the OR!’_. A nurse hands him a medical record and tells him to go to the bed 3-S, he starts reading the folder. Fall, suspected fracture.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Bijorman, I’ll be your doctor.” He raise his eyes from the folder, he prepares the stethoscope. He stays speechless, wide-eyed.

“Hey cousin.. hello!” the redhead starts laughing. “Here I am. To see you at work!”

“Anna!! What the hell happened to you!?” Kristoff begins to examine her cousin’s leg. It’s swollen and purple, probably a compound fracture. He cuts her jeans and observes better the wound, there’s a bit of blood, but only from bruises.

“I was trying to reach a box, you know that I moved, and at one point I lost balance and I was falling, nothing serious! But I couldn’t get up so I had to hitch a ride and come here.. You know I’m such a clumsy, it’s nothing serious, just give me some painkiller and I come home and I’ll not waste your time.”

Kristoff takes the leg up and downstream. Fracture of the right tibia. He tries to align the limb but he notices a judder from Anna. “Anna, you have a fracture, we must take an X-Ray. When you were falling have you hit your head? Have you got the pills? Why have you lost balance?” he takes the stethoscope again, he’s about to listen to the heart and lungs.

“No I don’t think that I hit the head.” Kristoff arches his eyebrows. He calls a nurse.

“Call Dr. Winters and say to come to me. Now. Anna you’re such a klutz.”

Elsa is very interested in a cardiac surgery’s article when his pager sounds. “Bijorman.”. She gets up and goes to the ER, she sees her intern who is about to check the heart beat of the patient. _‘Redhead. She’s familiar. Maybe I’ve seen her before?’_


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I really hope you enjoy the story so far.

“What have we got?” she lets move Kristoff away and she’s listening to the heart beat of the young girl who giggled. She rose an eyebrow.

“It’s cold.. anyway it’s nothing serious Doc.” Anna’s about to move, when she feels a hand pressed gently, but at the same time with some pressure, on her chest, so the girl will stay still.

“Her beat is a few arrhythmic. Miss..” 

“Anna Summers.” Elsa’s looking at her ‘ _Isn’t it the same last name of the chief?_ ’. Anna noticed her look and smiles. _‘She’s confused. Cute.’_

“Well, miss Summers, now Dr. Bijorman will examine you.” She checks the medical record. “Fracture of the right tibia. Dr. Bijorman, a word please.”

“Ouch, is Kristoff in some kind of trouble?” Anna chuckles and Kristoff sends her something like an evil stare.

“Bijorman, why did you call me for a consultation? The patient has a fracture.”

“She had some heart problems a few years ago and I wanted that you gave a look. She’s the daughter of the chief.” She looks at him coldly. _‘So she’s the chief’s daughter.’_. She’d like to tell to her intern that he could have examined the patient without problems, he’s got skills. It’s not that because she’s the daughter of the chief she can have some privileged treatment. She turns to the redhead who’s smiling. ‘ _This girl makes me feel uncomfortable..’_.

“Fine. Make the X-Rays. Leg and chest, just to make sure. The procedure is the same: same tests, same exams. Make sure there aren’t problems. I’ll go inform the chief that her daughter is in the hospital.” Elsa is about to turn and leave when she feels an hand on her arm.

“No!! Please, don’t let my dad know.. I don’t want to make him worry.” As soon as Anna realize that she just took the arm of the woman in front of her, she releases it immediately, blushing.

“I’m sorry, but the family must be informed. It’s the procedure.” And with that Elsa goes to the Chief’s office.

Meanwhile Anna is taken to make the X-Rays, Dr. Summers talks about his daughter’s situation.

“So, she has a fracture.”

“A suspected one, I’m waiting for the X-Ray’s results. Bijorman should bring them to me as soon as he’ll got them.”

“Okay, she’ll be your patient.”

“Sir, with all due respect, there’s nothing cardiac. A heart beat a few arrhythmic, but nothing more.”

“Dr. Winters, my daughter has had heart problems, and I’d like you, as a cardiac surgeon of this hospital and one of the best in the nation, to keep an eye on my daughter. Because as you know, the hospital policy forbids me to be the doctor of my family.” She doesn’t want to have to deal with a case that it’s no within her competence, but nonetheless it is the chief of surgery who tells her to do so. And she should listen to him. After all it was him who gave her a job.

“Fine, Sir. She’ll be a patient of Bijorman and mine.”

“No, he can’t be on this case, he’s her first cousin, and I prefer only you. He will replace your shift in the ER while you’re with my daughter.”

_ ‘So, I have a single patient. The daughter of the chief. I’ve just become a babysitter.’ _

“You can go. I need to tell my wife that Anna is in the hospital.” Elsa walks out the office and goes to Kristoff.

The boy is about to call Elsa when she arrives. He handles her the exam’s result.

“She has a bad fracture, I think there’ll be needed a surgery.” The woman looks at the image. The bone is just under the skin, however there’s a internal bleeding caused by a bone’s fragment that pierced a vein.

“And she wanted to go home? Call orthopaedics, we’ll operate and treat this bleeding. Go to inform the chief. I’m bringing her in the OR.”

“I’m not coming?”

“No, the chief has assigned you to the ER, you need to replace me.” Kristoff looks puzzled and goes to Dr. Summers. _‘She has to deal Anna alone? Good luck.’_. Elsa reaches Anna, she’s with some nurses and you can clearly see that she’s in pain.

“Miss Summers, we have to perform surgery right away. You have an internal bleeding, if you keep try to move your leg you’ll make it worse. As soon as the nurses get you ready, we’ll take you to the OR.”

“Ah... so it’s serious?” Anna looks worried. Elsa’s looking her into the eyes, turquoise ones, in the ER they were radiant but now they are dark, full of fear. The doctor comes closer to her, but there’s always some distance between the two of them.

“You’re losing blood due to a laceration of a vein. But there’s nothing to worry about, we’ll fix the damage and you’ll be fine.” Anna is watching at her intensely.

“You’ll be in the OR with Kristoff?”

“Dr. Bijorman won’t be in the room with me.”

“What?? And why??” Now Anna looks angry. _‘I could say the same thing, miss Summers.’_

“Your father decided that I was the one who would take care of you. You can talk about it with him,” the nurses give a nod to Elsa meaning that everything was ready. “after the operation. You’ll be asleep  so you won’t feel anything.” Anna nods and they take her to the OR.

The chief and Kristoff look the operation from the room, the boy wants to be there with Elsa, though it’s not a case of Cardiology he would have liked to operate and give a hand. After all it is her cousin the one on the operating table. Anna’s father looks every move without saying a word. After a while he’s called out the room because his wife Gerda has just arrived at the hospital and she is worried. Once the operation ends, Elsa goes to Anna’s family in order to let them know that everything went well. As soon as she finishes her speech she’s hugged by the girl’s mother. The doctor is like paralyzed.

“Thanks you, I was so worried for my little Anna! Saw Kai? I told you she wasn’t supposed to do things alone! She took your stubbornness.” Elsa would desperately that the woman leaves her, but it seems  that it is out of question for now. The chief blushes from a little embarrassment.

“Honey.. you know how is our daughter! The important thing is that she’s fine, don’t worry. She’s a excellent doctor by her side.” Elsa feels chief’s gaze upon herself.

“Thank God you were there.” Then she makes a little distance between them and Elsa sighs in relief. “Wow, you’re such a beautiful woman. And what a nice cap you have! Are those snowflakes? Anna loves them! I hope she’s seen them: their sight would let her be less worried.” Elsa feels embarrassed by the sudden attention. _‘Okay, let me Mrs. Summers, leave me, right now.’_ Elsa escapes from the woman’s arms trying not to seem rude. She doesn’t like to have physical contact with other people.

“Excuse me, I need to check on some things.” If she could run she would have done so right in that moment, but she is too professional to do something like that.


	5. Chapter 5

Anna wakes up a few hours after the surgery. She’s looking around the room and it’s a bit dark, then she realizes looking at the window that it’s night. But she doesn’t know what time is it. It’s quiet and there are fewer nurses, she has never been at the hospital after the sunset.

“You’re awake. How are you feeling?” the girl looks up and recognizes the blonde in front of her. The doctor is checking on her injury with a focused look on her face. Her eyes start to look up to the redhead and suddenly Anna starts to blush and be a bit agitated.

_‘Oh no! My hair!! It must be a mess..’_ she’s about to fix up her hair when she’s stopped by the voice of the woman in front of her.

“You shouldn’t be concerned about your hair, miss Summer. You have slept more then you should have to. Your mother waited until the end of visiting-time and then she went home. I don’t know if your father is still in the hospital.” Elsa takes the medical record. “The surgery went well, we stopped the bleeding. It wasn’t nothing to serious.” Anna’s looking at her as if she’s waiting for something. The blonde doesn’t understand what’s going on and she’s starting to feel a bit uncomfortable with the situation. “There is something wrong? Are you feeling pain? Should I give you some pain killers?” the redhead shakes her head.

“You haven’t told me your name yet. The braid covers up the name on your coat.”

“I’m Doctor Elsa Winters.” Anna smiles. _‘Why is she smiling? What’s funny?’_. The patient sees the confusion on the blonde’s face.

“You have a nice name. Winters, it suits you, you know?”

_‘Because of the all Ice Queen stuff?_ ’ Elsa grimaces. She hears Anna’s chuckles. Has Elsa just said that aloud?

“No, it’s not because of how others call you. I noticed that you have a beautiful cap with snowflakes on it and your skin is so pale. No wait.. I didn’t mean that you look pale as a dead body! Oh God.. I didn’t mean it neither, what I wanted to say is that you have a wonderful skin, it looks like soft as the snow in the early morning.. it’s awkward, no, not you’re awkward, I am awkward, you’re gorgeous, no wait what?” the girl’s face becomes redder and redder. _‘Anna you should shut up! Kristoff tells you always.. oh God if he find out about this he will mock you about this forever! I need to learn how to stop my mouth..’._ Elsa is speechless and a bit shocked by the young girl’s words. Nobody told her something like that, well, when she was at high school there were some boys who tried to hook up with her but without success. This is the first time after a long time that something like this happens to her. The doctor doesn’t know what to do, she stays there, motionless, looking at the redhead. She’s feeling some warm building up her face. _‘Am I.. blushing? What? Impossible... There’s no way that I’m blushing.. She’s so red, like if she’s on fire. Get over yourself Elsa, say something!’_

“Tomorrow morning we’ll do some exams in order to make sure that your healing process goes as it should. By your father’s request we’ll check up your heart too.” Elsa looks at her watch, trying to regain some control on herself and she realizes only now that it’s late and in theory her shift finished hours ago. “Get some rest.”

“You too, you look very tired. Good night.” Anna’s lips give to the blonde a  genuine smile and Elsa goes away, without any other words. The redhead thinks she didn’t want to create a uncomfortable situation for the doctor.

While Dr. Winters is finishing her work and is about to go home, Anna looks at the window of her room. Her last thoughts are about the stars that she’d like to see but can’t, because she has to stay in bed, and about the icy blue eyes of her doctor.

Once it’s morning, Anna’s father goes to his daughter’s room, to know how she’s doing. He finds her sleeping. His daughter has never been a morning person, so the hospital life will be a real challenge to her: wake ups and medical examinations early in the morning and nothing to do. Anna is that kind of girl who can’t stay still, she’s like a child on a sugar rush 24/7.  For sure, she’ll find a way to get up and leave the bed or at least she’ll try to corrupt some nurse to stay with her and take her for a wheelchair ride in the hospital. Kai gets closer to his daughter, he wakes her up touching gently her nose. He smiles as soon as he sees his daughter’s eyes opening.

“Mh.. morning dad.. What time is it? I want to sleep..”

“Good morning Anna, it’s 7:30, the doctor comes here to check on you soon, and I thought it was better that I was the one waking you up. How are you feeling?” Her father caresses her hair for a bit before she tries to sit.

“I’m feeling well, I wanted to sleep more though.. Ohi, why wasn’t Kristoff in the ER with Dr. Winters?”

“You’re my daughter, I want the best for you, and she is. I’m not saying that your cousin isn’t good at his job, but I prefer her as your doctor. And Kristoff has to make experience, so he’s replacing temporarily  Dr. Winters checking up her patients, while she’s busy with you.”

Anna sighs, she wanted her cousin to be her doctor, but when her father decides something there’s no way to make him change his mind, probably she got her stubbornness from him. With Kristoff she could have more chances to go around the hospital and not stay in the bed all day long. But with Dr. Winters, Anna doesn’t think that this is an available option. The redhead has noticed right away the blonde’s professionalism, she takes her job seriously maybe this is the reason why she has a feeling that there’s something missing in the doctor: fun. To Anna, Elsa seems so tense, and the redhead thinks that the blonde should loosen up a bit. Focus only on the work isn’t too much healthy.

Not long after the father says bye to her daughter, the nurses start to check up Anna waiting the Dr. Winters’ coming.

Anna is chatting and joking with the nurses when at one point the air in the room changes. Where shortly before there was relax now it seems there’s some tension. (Positively or not, she doesn’t know yet) Elsa is surprised by this change in the room after her coming. She chooses to not give too much thought on the situation.

“Good morning Miss Summers, how are you feeling? Any pain?”

“Morning Doc! No, I’m feeling great, the pain killers work perfectly.”

Elsa comes closer to the redhead’s leg in order to check the wound and the stitches, she wants to be sure that the girl doesn’t get infection. Anna jolts for a moment  at the contact  with the cold finger of the doctor. It’s not a reaction to the pain, although she felt a mild discomfort (probably due to the stitches that pull), but this sensation is from that contact, short-term between her skin and Elsa’s fingers while  removing the bandage. As if there had been a slight electric shock, but it wasn’t one of those unpleasant.

Satisfied that the wound seems to heal as it should, Dr. Winters takes the medical record and starts to read it and fill it out, telling the nurses which medication the patient will take. “It seems to heal without problems, later today we’ll do some leg and chest’s X-rays.” Elsa marks the time of the end of the visit on the medical record and exits the room.

While the doctor goes out, Anna looks at her and hears the nurses mumble something but can’t understand what they’re saying. Probably something relating the blonde’s attitude.


	6. Chapter 6

Anna keeps her eyes on the nurses, she manages to find a way for listening. She’s asking herself why they say such things about Dr. Winters. According to Anna, the blonde seems a nice person. The group of nurses is at the door’s threshold, with some safe-distance from Anna’s bed, they are making sure that the doctor isn’t near them, they don’t want any kind of problems with the Ice Queen.

“You know, I heard that she moved from the last hospital because of a scandal between her and the Chief of Cardiology.” One of them says, trying to keep his voice not too loud.

“Oh really? What kind of scandal?” A girl of the group says a bit too loud making the redhead more curious.

“Sexual! Someone saw them in one room, and she had to quit the job.” The same nurse who had spoken at first, answers to his friends. The taller one chuckles thinking about something and then he speaks.

“Well, she’s hot, despite being the Ice Queen. I bet she’s a tiger in bed, have you seen her boobs? Gods, I’d do everything for fuck them.”

Unbeknownst to the nurses, Anna is listening to everything that come out from those mouth. They keeps saying other things like that, making comments about the doctor’s body, their fantasies. She can’t believe in what her ears are hearing. _‘What the hell..? I don’t think she has such a reputation, she’s nice, and dad would never give a job to one who fucked her superior. These are just gossips. Nothing more.’_ A little after this conversation they walk out the redhead’s room, leaving her alone with her thoughts.

In the meanwhile, Elsa is in her office, working on her patient’s medical record. Every time the girl makes a test or a check-up, the doctor has to write the result of those and give the papers to the Chief, that in this case is also the father of the patient. She’s meticulous in her work, but she’s very quick too. It’s strange, in someone’s opinion being quick in writing or making a test could be “dangerous” because the doctor could skip or miss something. But this isn’t the case of Dr. Winters.

She’s just finished writing the last paragraph of the medical record when Dr. Summers enters the room.

“Good morning Dr. Winters, I don’t know if you heard me knocking..”

“Oh, morning Dr. Summers, I was finishing this papers, sorry I must have been too focused. What can I do for you?”

“Have you finished with those? I wanted to know how Anna is. Are you going to check her heart today?”

“Yes, everything seems going well. Her injury is healing as it should. No worries and yes, today I’m doing her an ECG, after I checked on her blood pressure. Then I was thinking about some X-Ray, or a magnetic resonance.”

“Good, I’ll see you when it’s time to you, to make these exams.”

“With all due respect, Sir, I don’t think it’s appropriate. You’re the father of the patient, and, being her doctor, I can’t allow family in the same room where I’m making test to the patient. It’s unprofessional. Honestly, I don’t care if you are her father and want to be sure everything goes well. You choose me as her doctor. You think I’m qualified enough for taking care of your daughter. You told me you wanted the best, you told me I was. So here I am, doing what I’m best at. My job.” Kai looks at her with a bit of surprise in his eyes. It is the first time that one of his employees talk to him like that and it isn’t the first time that one member of his family is in the hospital, and when it happened the doctors were always willing to let the Chief take part of the examination. He knows that Dr. Winters isn’t like the others. He’s glad to see how she takes seriously her job. He doesn’t like too much being told in that way, but he’s happy to be treated like a family member for once for real. Sometimes it’s good not to be just the Chief.

“Good, if you need anything just ask. I’ll leave you with your work. I need all of your concentration on my daughter.” And with that he exits from the room.  She’s left alone in her study, watching at the closed door. Her office isn’t big, well organized, there aren’t pictures, on the contrary of the Chief’s office. She has no idea how the other doctors’ office are, she thinks only about herself. She has this rule: never be too close to anyone in a workplace. Just keep everything in a professional level.

The only personal object she has in her desk is a little snow globe, a gift from her mother for her 12th birthday. That was one of her best days of her life. She’s born on the 19th of December, every year she waited for that date just to be able to go at the ice ring and skating. When she was little her parents brought her to the ice ring of her city and her mother tough her how to skate, and the little Elsa was really talented. If she hadn’t become a surgeon, she would have wanted to be a ice-skater. She  always loved winter, the snow and the ice. Unfortunately on her 12th birthday didn’t snow, she was a bit upset, but her parents had a surprise for her: they brought her to a new building in town which she wasn’t aware: it was a new winter-sport center, where it was possible to make snow. As soon as Elsa entered in the building she was speechless, there were snow everywhere in there, even if outside it was sunny. After spending all day there, they went to a restaurant, as usual, with her parents’ colleagues and friends, she didn’t have friends, so she had that kind of company. As the day ended they came back home, after her father said goodnight to the blonde, her mother Katherine stayed in the room for a little while with a little package in her hand, she gave it to her. Elsa was surprised, her parents didn’t give her a lot of gifts (no matter if it was her birthday or Christmas or whatever). She unpacked her gift and saw a little snow globe: inside there was a young girl who was ice-skating in a lake. When she had shaken the object she saw little white snowflakes coming around the girl. Elsa smiled shyly to her mother, who said something that remain forever in her mind. “When you feel upset, because there’s no snow outside, just shake it. It will make you smile, my dearest princess.” For a little girl those words didn’t mean anything more, but now, as a grown-up woman, she understand what her mother was trying to say to her. Every time Elsa is upset, blocked, alone, she looks at her snow globe and she remembers her mother’s words and her smile. Even if it’s been a lot since she last saw her, she knows that her mother is always by her side, watching over her. She hopes that she manages to make her parents proud of her.

Before she exits her office, she looks one more time at the object, she shakes it, and then she leaves closing the door. She walks to the redhead in order to take her blood pressure and make the ECG.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Hope you enjoy the little chapter (so sorry again for the lenght of these..) I decided to make Elsa's birthday on the 19th of December, because here in Italy that was the date the movie came to theaters.


	7. Chapter 7

Elsa walks in Anna's room, the nurses aren't there. She looks around and sighs.

"Good morning Miss Summers, I'll check your blood pressure and then I'll make the ECG, the electrocardiography." She takes the blood pressure meter and place it on patient's left arm. She places her stethoscope between the cuff and the elbow and she starts to blow up the cuff to restrict blood flow. She keeps her eyes on the blood pressure cuff's dial to record the maximum blood pressure, then she starts to deflate the cuff and records the minimum blood pressure.

Elsa doesn't like using the digital blood pressure meter, she's old-school, just like her parents taught her when she was little: every morning and evening they checked each other's blood pressure. It was a routine that remained in Elsa's life.

"Doc, but shouldn't a nurse do this thing?" Anna interrupts Elsa's thoughts.

"It should be. But I don't see any nurse, and I need to make these exams, I don't like to delay things." The blonde takes off the blood pressure meter, and gets the electrocardiograph.

"Wait, are _you_ going to take the test?"

"Yes, there is any problem? I'm sure you know how it works."

"Yeah.. I'm familiar with that machine.." The redhead starts blushing, and Elsa seems confused.  _'She's familiar with it, so what's the big deal?'_  as the doctor is approaching to take the electrodes the realisation hits her.

"If you feel uncomfortable with me doing this, I'll call a nurse." Anna blushes more, and then nods silently.

"All right." Elsa exits from the room and calls a nurse, letting her do the ECG. The doctor stays out, watching at the clock. With this girl there are always first times. In her entire carrier it's the first time that a patient asks for someone else for the ECG. Maybe she's shy. During this exam the patient is a bit naked, because the electrodes needs to be attached to the bare skin, mostly on the chest of course, the other ones are on the wrists and ankles. Elsa sighs, it's not the first time she has a shy patient, so again, what is the big deal? It's not like she would grope her, she's respectful. Not like other persons she knows. At the thought Elsa grunts, she doesn't like remember that, that's why she came here to the Arendelle General Hospital, to avoid those memories.

The nurse exits from Anna's room. Elsa enters and checks the ECG graph paper. She notices the Atrial Fibrillation Paroxysmal, she knew about the pathology, she read the medical record of the younger girl.

"Tell me, from how long do you have this AF?"

"Since I was 21. It's been almost 4 years. I had a heart failure, due to hypothermia. I was in mountain with my family and Kristoff, enjoying our winter holidays, Kristoff and I went to the lake with his little brother. They wanted to play on the ice lake, I wasn't sure, I didn't know how to skate, but I decided to go with them anyway. We played for a while, making snowmen, skating, it was snowing but suddenly the weather got worse and the ice cracked under the feet of Kristoff's brother, I acted by impulse and I was the closer to him, I managed to push him away, he didn't fell in the cold water, but I did. The ice wasn't resistant enough, Kristoff and his brother had to walked away from me, he sent his brother to call someone's help. Kristoff tried to help me, he handle me a stick, but I didn't have the strength, after a while I couldn't feel my legs, honestly I have no idea how much I stayed in the water, I lost consciousness and when I woke up I was in an hospital bed. They told me my heart stopped for a while, and they managed to bring me back during an open heart surgery just for luck." Anna's eyes are focused on the window, Elsa can clearly see the hurt in the redhead's eyes.

"I am sorry for what happened." Elsa manages to say after a while. "In the last period, how is it going? Do the pills help?"

"Yeah. Things are better." Anna clears her voice, she doesn't want to seem weak in front of the older woman. "So, how is my heart?"

"Considering your pathology, it does its job. But, that doesn't mean you don't have to do other exams. I want to do an X-Ray as soon as a room is available." She can hear the grunt from the younger girl.

"Is it necessary?"

"Yes, it is. I have to do all the exams I need. Plus, your father wants to make sure everything is okay."

"Fine. I guess I have no choice then."

"No, you haven't." Elsa's about to exit from Anna's room, when the redhead stops her.

"Dr. Winters, may I ask you something?" Elsa turns facing Anna.

"You may."

"Why did you left the Southerisland Hospital? My dad told me it's a great hospital, especially in your field." Anna says the last words with a whisper. Elsa's looking at her.  _'Why does she want do know? This is not a question to ask.'_  Despite her desire to not answer, she does it anyway.

"I received a better offer." It isn't the all truth, but why should she tell her patient about the real reason of the transfer? It's a personal question. And she exits from the room.

Anna looks at her while Elsa's walking away. She knows that the blonde didn't tell her the truth, not because of what the nurses said, but because she knows that. She doesn't know why, but she knows that her doctor isn't telling her everything. _'Well, Anna, you are her patient, what were you expecting?'_

Before to check if there is a X-Ray room available, Elsa goes to the restroom. She locks the door. She lifts her shirt and looks at her bandage. "It's time to change it." She whispers to herself while she takes off her shirt and lower a bit her pants. Slowly and carefully she removes the bandage. Her eyes are blocked at her injury on her lower abdomen. "That bastard."


	8. Chapter 8

Elsa changes her bandage and fixes up her shirt. She unlocks the door and checks if there’s anyone near and reaches the waste bin. Her mobile phone rings and she looks at the ID caller. She sighs and press the green bottom.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Elsa. How are you doing?” the male voice says to her. While she’s talking to him,  she goes to her office.  Luckily it’s not too far away from the restroom.

“I’m fine. I’m at work, why are you calling me, Marshall?”

“I called you because I wanted to remind you that the trial is tomorrow. I know it’s not easy for you and I know there are enough proof to keep him in jail for a long time, but you know that the judge needs your deposition.”

“I know. I am the only one who have spoken about what he was doing to me and to the other women at the hospital. When I need to be there?”

“The trial begins at 9am. I’ll come over you at 8am, is that okay for you?”

“I need to talk to my Chief and ask him a permission to come to work later.”

“Honestly I would recommend you to take a day off. It won’t be easy for you, he will be in the courtroom..”

“Marshall, I am really grateful to you, for  what you are doing for me, but I think after the trial I’ll need to distract myself, and I believe that working is what I’ll need.”

“All right Elsa. Do what you think it’s better. You’re like a little sister to me, you know that. I’ve seen you grew up, our parents were best friends, it’s the least I can do. You know you can always count on me.”

“Thank you. I need to go back to work now. See you tomorrow.”

“Of course, bye Elsa. Take care, alright?”

“Sure.” The phone call ends and she puts her phone in her pocket. The blonde looks at her snow globe and shakes it. _‘I hope everything is going to be okay soon.’_ She has to talk to Dr. Summers later, but right now she needs to focus on her patient. After a while she exits from her office and goes to check if there is an X-Ray room available. Lucky her, there is one. She books it and walks to Anna’s room.

Kristoff has his break from the ER and he’s spending his free time with Anna. They talking about everything and nothing.

“So, have you asked Mandy out?” Anna asks him before taking a sip from her glass of water.

“Not yet.. I’m too busy with my shifts in the ER.”

“Bullshit. You’re afraid that she says no! But I think she’d like to go out on a date with you!”

Kristoff starts blushing. He likes a lot Mandy and he would like to go out with her, but his cousin is right: he is afraid of being rejected. He doesn’t even know if she’s interested in him. She is nice to him, they talk when they have time, but he doesn’t understand if there’s a possibility or not. He’s not a lover expert, but some of his friends are.

“Sooner or later I’ll ask her out, don’t worry. So, how is your hospital life with the Ice Queen?”

Anna smiles as her mind recalls the blonde doctor’s icy blue eyes.

“It’s okay. She isn’t that cold, you know? I think that she just need to loosen up a bit, she’s too focus on her work.” The cousins don’t know that Elsa is just outside the door, she isn’t entered yet, but she can hear what they’re saying.

“Well, she’s a doctor, Anna. She needs to be focus.”

“Yes, I know that. I’d like to see her being more relaxed, you know? She seems so tense sometimes.” She doesn’t look at him, she keeps her eyes on her hands, thinking about how could she help her doctor to feel better. Anna has this feeling that the blonde doesn’t feel comfortable in this hospital yet. It’s like the older woman has some problems to familiarize with everyone else in the building. The redhead wants to help, she wants to see a smile from her doctor, she doesn’t know why, but she thinks that Elsa would be cuter if she smiles, it’s not that she isn’t cute now.

“Kristoff, do you know why she moved from that hospital?” her eyes are still on her hands. He looks at her with a bit of concern. He thinks that her cousin starts feeling something for his boss, he doesn’t know if it’s about friendship or something more. He knows Anna, she’s the kind of girl surrounded with a lot of people, she has this energy with her that makes everyone feel good when they’re in her presence.

“I heard some rumours. They say that there was a sexual scandal between her and her chief. Honestly I don’t know if that’s true, but I don’t believe in rumours.”

“I don’t think she’s that kind of woman, she doesn’t seem a-” they stop talking when the blonde walks in the room looking at them, making her presence clear. Icy blue eyes focus on turquoise ones. The blonde’s eyes seem to not let any emotion show. It’s hard for Anna to understand if the doctor heard them talking.

“There is a room available for the X-Ray. Dr.Bijorman, how are my other patients doing?”

“They’re fine. When my shift in the ER finishes, I’ll make the rounds.”

“Good. Miss Summers, we’re going to do the X-Ray in a few minutes.” The redhead nods and Elsa walks away to call a nurse. Anna looks at Kristoff who sighs.

“Wow, that was close.. Do you think she heard us?”

“I don’t know, I hope not. She’s my boss, I don’t want any problem and she’s pretty discreet. I think it’s better if I go, see you later!” he exits from the room and a nurse walks inside in order to preparing Anna. She sits on the wheelchair and they go to the room to make the exam. During the X-Ray everyone is quiet, there isn’t too much talking, only the usual “stay still” now and then. Anna hopes Elsa didn’t hear anything, but if she did she just keeps her mouth shut.

While Anna is still for the machine to do its job, Elsa watches the imagines. Anna’s heart seems to be okay, despite its conditions. She’s glad the pills do their jobs, this means that aside from the broken leg, Anna is fine and soon she can be sent home. The doctor asks to do the X-Ray to the leg too.

After the exam, they return to the redhead’s room.  Anna is again on her bed, watching at her doctor who is writing something on her medical record. She’d like to read what is written on it. Maybe tonight when there aren’t people around she can grab and read it. _‘She has always that expression on her face.. it’s cute the way her eyebrows arch when she’s focused. How old is she? I guess she isn’t too much older than me. Kristoff is 2 year older than me. I don’t think she’s 30 yet. She’s younger.’_

“So, how am I doing?” her turquoise eyes never goes away from the blonde.

“Aside  from your broken leg, you’re doing good. You’ll be home soon.”

“Yeah! That’s great, we should celebrate, I could eat a pizza and drink a beer-”

“You could, but you shouldn’t. For now, you need to eat and drink what the hospital offers you, once you’re home for a while you need to not drink alcoholic drinks because you’ll be under drugs. You shouldn’t-”

“Doc, I know. I can’t drink beer or wine or other stuff. I’m already on drugs, remember?” the redhead places her hand on her heart. “Because of it, I can’t get that drunk. Plus, my father is a doctor, he wouldn’t let me drink something I shouldn’t. I don’t need another parent, you know? I’m only happy that everything is fine, is it too much if I’d like to eat something different? It’s not like tomorrow I have a surgery.” Anna’s eyes never leaves Elsa’s. The blonde sighs.

“I didn’t want to sound like a parent.” She looks at the younger girl in front of her, she can see clearly that she doesn’t enjoy hospital food, how can someone blame her? “I am your doctor, I prefer you to eat the food that it’s here, but since you don’t have any surgery,” _‘Am I really suggesting this? What’s happening to me?’_ “ you could eat something else.” _‘There. I did it. There’s no turning back.’_ Anna’s eyes are wide open just like her mouth. She can’t believe that her doctor, the Ice Queen, the one who is so professional, let her eat some pizza. That’s a miracle.

“R-really?”

“I’m sure you heard me. Just, don’t let be caught from your father. I’d like to not have any problems with him.”

“Well.. you could eat with me..” she says so quiet that it is just like a whisper. But Elsa manages to hear her words.

“I am sorry.. I don’t think it’s appropriate for a doctor to eat with her patient.”

“No, right. That totally makes sense. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” Elsa is about to tell her that she didn’t make her feel that way but she’s stopped by the redhead words. “I’m sorry, I’m a bit tired. I’m sure you have a lot of doctor’s stuff to do.” Elsa closes her mouth and nods. Leaving the room, but before she exits the room she looks back at the girl who is watching out her window. The blonde sighs and goes away.

 _‘I’m just acted like I always do. So, why I feel like I did something wrong..?’_ Elsa is in front of her chief’s office. She knocks.

“Come in.” She walks in, closing the door behind her. “Oh, Dr. Winters, what can I do for you?”

“I wanted to ask for a permission. Tomorrow morning I have some personal stuff to do, which can’t be postponed. I think I’ll be back at work in the afternoon.”

“Is it because of the trial?” Elsa looks at Kai with eyes open.

“How…”

“I received a call from your lawyer. He informed me about it. You have my permission. Take the day off, you don’t need to come to work tomorrow.”

“Sir, I would-”

“I’ve already made my decision. Now, how is my daughter?” Elsa starts to talk about Anna’s exams.

It’s 8 o’clock in the morning. The doorbell rings and Elsa goes to open the door to her lawyer.

“Morning Elsa, how are you?”

“Hi Marshall. I’m fine. I want Hans Southerisland in jail for the rest of his life.”

“He will pay for what he did to you.”

“And to the other women.” He nods and walks her friend and client to his car. He opens the door for her and reaches the driver seat. He looks to the blonde. He remember when she was 3 years old playing with his toys in her parent’s garden, he was 10 back then. And now she’s going to be 28 years old in a few months. She’s been through a lot. They put on the seatbelts and he starts the engine.

“This is going to be a long morning.” Elsa says looking at the road.

“I know. I’m just sad that this.. thing happened to you. You didn’t deserved that.”

“I should have known. Since the first day I knew something wasn’t right with him. I should have never accepted that job in his father’s hospital.”

They drive to the courthouse for the trial in silence. They know what Elsa has to say to the judge. He knows how much this must be difficult to her, but when he looks in Elsa’s eyes he can clearly see her father. She’s grown up so much and her determination is the same that her father had. Despite everything Marshall knows that Joseph would have been proud of his little girl.

Marshall finds a free parking lot and stops the car. They walks in the courtroom.

“Ready?” He doesn’t look at Elsa, he knows that her eyes are focused on someone else right now.

“Ready. Let’s put an end to this story.” She looks at Hans who is handcuffed, there are two policemen next to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ehy, Marshall is our Marshmallow, I had to put him in this story, I love that big golem of ice and snow :D  
> I hope you enjoy the chapter


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there.   
> I've changed the rate because in this chapter there's a description of sexual abuse, if you're uncomfortable reading it (I tried to be more delicate as possible) skip the part in italic and where there's # (in the beginning and in the end of the scene). There's also a violent scene (not too much I think), as before, if you're uncomfortable skip it the italic's part and where there's #.

Elsa is waiting outside the courtroom, in a waiting room drinking a black tea. She keeps telling herself everything is going to be ok and soon this story will be over. Marshall is next to her, he doesn't say a word to his friend, in a few minutes the trial begins and Elsa needs to stay focus on what she's going to say to the judge and to the court.

Marshall is called and told that it's time to begin. It's 9 o'clock, there are a few people in the room, Elsa is grateful that the all story was handled with caution and without letting the media know everything. This story isn't well known to everyone only because Hans' father doesn't want too much problems, he doesn't want that his hospital would have been seen in a different way by the population, he tries to keep things as quiet as possible, only for that reason.

Elsa is sitting with her lawyer, like Hans with his. The judge begins to say why there's this trial. Elsa is called to the bar to depose. She takes the oath of telling only the truth.

"Ms. Winters, you're here today because you pressed charges on Mr. Southerisland. Could you tell to the judge and to the court why you make this formal accusation?" Marshall begins.

"Yes, I can. I made this formal accusation because Mr. Southerisland raped me and made me do sexual and not only things without my consensus." Hans looks at her smiling, Elsa hates that face, she hopes she won't see him again. Marshall gives her an understanding look and an apologetic smile.

"Could you tell us what he did to you the first time?" Elsa is becoming always more pale, if that is possible. The judge notices her discomfort and says "Take your time, Ms. Winters."

She takes a deep breath, close her eyes for a minute. She remembers very well those days, like it was yesterday. She opens her eyes, looks to the court, then to the judge and finally she focus her look to Hans. The blonde doctor begins telling that story. The one she wants to forget.

_#_

_She has finished her medical studies at the University, she graduated earlier, that was an advantage of being the daughter of two important surgeon of the country. She was one of the best students and doctor William Southerisland wanted her in his hospital. She stayed there for a few years, learning and teaching. Her last year of being a surgeon there was the worst period of her entire life, maybe worst then when her parents died._

_The 13th son of Dr. Southerisland, Hans, after working for a few months in an hospital out of the city, came back. Since the beginning he showed an interest on Elsa, which she didn't like. She didn't know back then why, but she knew that this Hans wasn't someone who you can trust or you can count on._

_One day she needed to stay at the hospital a bit longer, due to some paper work. She couldn't' know that that day would have changed her life._

_Hans entered in her office and locked the door. She knew something wasn't right. She looked at him and saw that his eyes were darker than usual._

_"Dr. Southerisland what-" He made her stop talking walking to her and pressed one hand to her mouth and the other was on her breast._

_"Now, you stay quiet. I've wanted to fuck you since the first day I saw you. I know you want me, I can see it. You play the role of the girl who pretend to not be interested in me by avoiding me or talking to me in a professional way, but I know that deep inside of you, you just want me, my body." She didn't know what he was talking about, she tried to stop him but he was stronger. He took her wrist to make her stay still, so he could do whatever he wanted to. He kissed her. She tried to keep her mouth shut, but he hit her with his knee her abdomen and she let out a cry. In that moment he put his tongue in her mouth, she tried to bit him, but she doesn't know how but she couldn't. She wanted to stop him, but her hands were blocked, her legs too. She knew where this was going. She hoped that her parents, wherever they were, weren't watching what was happening to their daughter._

_Hans took his belt and tied her hands together, so she couldn't do something she shouldn't, like punching him and run away. He made her sit on her desk. He undressed her and looked at her breast._

_"What a nice breast we have here." He took of her bra, and started to squeeze her boobs. He wasn't nice, the feel of his touch wasn't pleasant at all. Elsa wasn't that type of girl who cry, but tears were starting to fell from her icy blue eyes. She wanted him to stop, but even if she was yelling to him, he didn't care. He continued with what he was doing._

_He ripped her panties off, watched at her crotch he smiled and started to touch her clitoris. She wasn't wet, she wasn't aroused, but in Hans' eyes she was ready. He took off his pants, Elsa didn't want to look to him so she kept her eyes closed, with tears running over her face._

_"Look at me, bitch. See how hard you make me? I know you want me inside of you and I know you're ready, look at yourself, you're so wet." But she wasn't, she couldn't be. She knew she was going to feel a lot of pain. He took his penis in his hand and pushed it in Elsa's entrance. His penis was met by a lot of resistance, but Hans didn't care, he pushed harder until his member couldn't go any further. She shouted from pain, more tears were running. She couldn't believe of what was happening. She couldn't believe she had so much tears in her, but she knew that that was all she could do then. He started moving in and out from her, his member was becoming harder._

_"You're perfect for my cock. I knew it." He was like in a state of mind where he couldn't see the reality. She wasn't enjoying any of it, she was crying but not from pleasure but from pain. He thought that those cries where from her reaching her orgasm, but it wasn't like that. But it didn't matter, because he was in his "dreamland", he climaxed in her._

_#_

Elsa fights to keep back tears during her speech about the first rape. Marshall sees the pain in Elsa's eyes, he wants to stop, but he can't and Elsa knows it. The court and the judge listen carefully to every word Elsa is saying. They know how the trial will end, but they need to listen to everything even if they can understand the difficult situation the woman is dealing with.

Marshall clears his throat. "Okay, thanks. Could you tell us what other things he did to you? And to the other women?" she nods and starts to answer to his friend questions.

_#_

_After that day Elsa was afraid to see Hans, she wanted to talk to someone but she didn't have the force to do it. Every time she was alone, she hoped Hans wouldn't show up. But she wasn't that lucky. He kept visiting Elsa when she was alone in her office or somewhere else. He forced her to do blowjobs when he didn't want to penetrate her vagina._

_It was a night when she was alone in her office thanking God Hans wasn't there. It wasn't the first time in those months, and it was suspicious to her. She was happy that once in a while she was safe, but she had a feeling that something really bad was happening. She exited from her office, the hospital was quiet, it was pretty late. Once she reached a closed door she heard some noises. She was about to open the door when she recognized a voice. Hans' voice. The other voice was female, and was familiar. In a bad way. Elsa was able to hear the pain of the woman. She tried to open the door, she wanted to save that woman. The door wasn't locked, so she managed to open it and she entered. The woman, was a nurse, she didn't know her name, she didn't care back then, she wanted only her to run away from him. So she took a broom and hit Hans' head, the woman managed to escaped from the man, and ran away. Elsa knew she needed to run as well, but she felt arms holding her. She tried to release herself from the unwanted hold. She succeeded in doing that, but soon enough she felt a pain in her abdomen. She looked down and saw Hans' scalpel in her flesh. She didn't know why he kept his scalpel in his pocket. But he had it, and for her, it wasn't good. The scalpel exited from her abdomen, but it entered again soon._

_"You did a stupid thing. Really stupid and know you're going to die." He kept stabbing her until she fall on the ground. She was losing her consciousness. He thought she was going to die and smiled. He walked away leaving her alone in a puddle of blood. He was out of his mind he didn't check her breath, he didn't hide her. He just walked away._

_Before she blacked out she managed to call for help._

_#_

Elsa keeps answering all the questions of Marshall and Hans' lawyer, and once they have finished with them, she's glad she didn't have to tell anything else again. The judge let her sit next to her lawyer and asks for Hans' to go to the bar.

After Hans' deposition the court leave the room, in order to decide Hans' fate. After some minutes they entered again.

"It was easy for us to decide. All the proof are against Mr. Southerisland. We've decided: the indicted Hans Southerisland is guilty." The judge nods and beats his hammer.

It is over. Everything ends with the hammer hitting the wood. Marshall smiles at Elsa, she lets out a long breath, she can't believe: finally she won't see Hans again, and she can try to move on and live her life. Despite not being such a affectionate person, she accepted Marshall hug, she wants to cry but she doesn't. She wants to be strong in front of everyone, even if in their opinion she has all the right to cry. The two lawyers shake their hands.

"It's over. I'm proud of you, Elsa. You did a great job there, I know it wasn't easy, but I'm glad you did it." Marshall says once they're in front of Elsa's house door.

"Thanks Marshall, I really appreciate what you did. I can thank you enough."

"You don't need to thank me, just.. live your life now, find friends, find someone to love, be happy. You deserve it, but now? Just go, stay in your couch watch a movie, read a book, sleep. Just relax." He hugs her one more time before going away.

Elsa enters in her home. She locked the door behind her, and looks at the kitchen. It's 3pm, she could eat something. She has a big house, she inherited from her parent's death. There's a big kitchen where she loves cooking, when she has time she learns new recipes. Her living is next to the kitchen, they are divided from a log table, where she eat her meals. In her living room there's a 50 inches plasma TV and a lot of DVD. She enjoys watching movies before going to bed, her Saturday nights are just like that: She sits on her couch, choose a movie and watches it. She owns a PlayStation 3, sometimes she plays it. She enjoys music, so next to the window there's a piano. She's been playing it since she was a little girl, thanks to her mother, who loved music as well. The wall is a light blue, Elsa decided to paint her house with that color because it makes her feel calm.

She decides to eat a simple salad, with carrots, tomato and cucumbers. After her snack, she walks to the piano and starts playing some notes. She misses those days where her mother was sitting next to her teaching how to play the instrument. At the memory of her mother's smile Elsa sighs and a tear fell on her cheek and a hand touches the wet cheek. The blonde thinks that she can cry now, she's in her home, she's safe. She wants so much to cry, and so she does. Tears falling on her cheeks, she hugs herself trying to feel some comfort, imagining that her arms are the ones of her mother. In this state of mind, Elsa could feel the presence of her parents, she wants them next to her. She feels so alone, she doesn't want to be alone, but she doesn't have any friend, only Marshall. She tries to calm herself, she's been crying for hours by now. She thinks she should stop crying, she needs to put herself together. She closes her eyes and a familiar figure is in front of her. Slowly she opens her eyes and chooses what to do. She takes her car keys and her jacket and she walks out from her home heading toward her car.

It's 6pm, the blonde knocks to the door and starts to walking in the room.

"Oh, good evening doc. Why are you here? Oh!" The redhead younger woman looks at her doctor's hands. She's holding a pizza. Anna smiles at the blonde.

"I thought you'd like eating some pizza, I don't know what you like. I managed to bring it here without being seen." Elsa walks a little bit closer to her patient and handle the pizza to her. Anna opens the box and smiles. It's a four season pizza with ham, mushrooms, artichokes and olives.

"You may not know what I like, but you managed to bring me my favorite pizza. Thanks you."

Elsa can feel her own lips that are about to make a smile, but she doesn't want to smile in front of her.  _'No, no I can't smile, I don't want to show any weaknesses.. but why? I've just made something that I'd never have done before only because I was feeling bad for yesterday. Maybe the morning I've just had made me too emotional.'_  Elsa stops her upcoming smile and looks at Anna's smile, she's focused on her pizza and now she's licking her lips. Unconsciously Elsa licks her own lips too.  _'Look at her, she has something different from everyone else.'_

Anna manages to see Elsa licking her lips.

"Doc, do you want some?" Elsa's mind tells her  _no_ , but how could she ever say no to this young woman in front of her? The blonde checks that there's no one near the room and nods shyly to the redhead taking a sit on the chair next her bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure to write the abuse on Elsa, but a part of me told me to do it, so I did it. I tried to handle at best that delicate issue. I don't know how "Pizza quattro stagioni" is called around the world and how it is in other countries, but here in Italy we have those ingredients, it's my brother's favourite pizza, so I don't know, I wanted to make it the favourite one of Anna as well.


	10. Chapter 10

_ ‘What am I doing here? I keep doing things I usually don’t do. Why?’ _ The blonde can’t help but stare at the younger woman, who’s eating the last slice of pizza. Anna seems happy, how can someone be this happy only because of food? Elsa isn’t able to understand this woman. Every time she’s near the redhead, she feel something odd. She doesn’t know yet what it is about, but she’s afraid to find it out. She isn’t sure if it’s appropriate for her, as her doctor, to stay here eating pizza with her. A part of her is telling her to walk away, that what she’s doing is wrong, she should be professional and be only a doctor to the woman, and that same part of her reminds Elsa of what her father told her once when she was a little girl. 

_ “Elsa, you need to understand that you can’t show your emotion. You need to be as neutral as possible, because you can’t grow attached to your patients. It’s for your best, when you’ll lose a patient, which probably will happen, you must to inform the family. I’ve lost patients, but some doctors can’t handle the loss of some patients, because they grew attached to them. This is deleterious for a surgeon. You’re going to be the best doctor of the country. I want you to be the best, and you’ll be. Remember, a patient isn’t a friend, it’s just a person who needs health care, and you’re doing your job, as a surgeon, to make them feel better and heal. After your work is done, you won’t have any reason to keep be near to them.” Joseph tells to his 12 years old daughter.  _

But the other part keeps telling her that everything is right. Being next to Anna, eating a pizza with her, sitting next to her bed when she’s supposed to be at home, there is something right in this.

During their dinner Anna keeps talking, she stops only when she needs to take a bite from her food. Politely Elsa is listening to every word that exits from that lovely mouth. More than one time the blonde’s eyes are locked in those lips, other times they are focused on the redhead’s turquoise eyes. It looks like there’s a little fire behind them, they seems so alive in comparison with her icy blue ice, that are like they’re empty.

“So, tell me doc. Why weren’t you here today?” Anna asks to Elsa, before taking her last bite from the pizza. She looks in her doctors eyes, she’s curious but she is worried too. Elsa notices the strange look from her patient. She is not going to tell her the truth.

“I had some personal stuff to do, and the Chief let me take the day off.” She isn’t looking at Anna, she doesn’t know why, but she knows that she couldn’t be able to hold her gaze while she isn’t telling her the whole truth. The redhead seems to notice that.

“Mh.. so why are you here? Why did you bring me some pizza? I don’t think it’s only because I’d have appreciate something different from hospital food.” 

“I.. I thought that maybe that could be a way to express my apologies.” Anna looks at her confused.

“Apologies? For what?” Elsa tries to not meet her patient’s eyes. Suddenly she finds interesting the floor.

“About yesterday.. I couldn’t help but think that you were upset when I told you I couldn’t eat with you.” She says those words almost as a whisper. _‘Oh, come on, Winters. Why are you acting like this? Put yourself together!’_

Anna is silent, she doesn’t speak, she only keeps her eyes on her doctor’s face. She can clearly see the discomfort she’s feeling right now. The redhead doesn’t understand why the blonde is acting like this, but she’s glad that she’s changing a bit. Odd as it may seem, she thinks that the Ice Queen is becoming more comfortable talking to her. Anna finds herself smiling a bit and without realize her hands are reaching the blonde’s ones. The doctor’s hand are soft and cold, she squeezes them a little. Elsa doesn’t notice right away the hands on hers. Her eyes slowly move from the floor to them, she feels warm. A pleasant warm which is reaching her skin and bones.

Elsa isn’t used to have this kind of physical connection with someone. It’s a long time since something like this happened, holding her hands in comfort and understanding. Her hands within others, reminds Elsa of her childhood’s days. Her mother used to hold her hands when she was sick, afraid. 

_ “Oh my little princess.. Mama is here.” Katherine is cupping her 12 years old daughter’s cheek. Elsa is sick, she has flu and she comes back home sooner from school. Her mother is next to her bed, where the little girl is laying.  _

_ “Mama.. I’m sorry..” little Elsa is about to cry, her father doesn’t like when she misses school. _

_ “Oh honey, this isn’t your fault. You don’t need to be sorry. Your father will understand, I’ll make him understand that you didn’t miss school because you wanted. Don’t worry.” She takes her hand and start drawing little circle with her thumb. “Darling, your father and I love you so much, you know that, right?”  _

_ “Yes, I know.. but he’ll be angry..” her mother place a soft kiss on her daughter forehead.  _

_ “He won’t. Do you trust me?” little Elsa make a little smile and nods. “Good girl. Now, I take care of you, you’ll be fine soon.” _

_ After her time being sick little Elsa returns to school and her science tutoring with her father. After his speech about how she’ll be the best doctor in the country she goes to her mother. She is taking care of the garden, when her little girl comes to her. The blonde tells her about her father’s opinion of the relationship between patient and doctor.  _

_ “Honey, do you know what really matters in a patient-doctor relationship?” Elsa shakes her head and her mother smiles. “Trust. The patient needs to know that his doctor will do everything to help him. Your father and I share a different point of view about this. He thinks that a surgeon needs to be distant, I think it’s important that there’s a good relationship. If the patient is sure that the doctors and the nurses are there for him, he’ll be happier and he’ll feel better sooner. We, as doctors, do everything we can, but in the end, everything is up to the patient. You’re little, but one day you’ll understand what I’m trying to explain to you.” She takes her daughters hand and brings her closer to the orchids. _

_ “Flowers are alive, just like you and animals. If you take a good care of them, they’ll grow nicely and well. If you are distant, doesn’t take care of them, they’ll wither. And we don’t want this, do we?” Elsa looks at a group flowers that are growing, next to them there are some beautiful orchids already grew. She squeezes her mother’s hand. _

_ “No, we don’t want that. We take good care of them, so they can be as beautiful as those are now.” _

Unconsciously her thumb draws some circles on Anna’s hand while she is remembering that day in the garden with her mother. She doesn’t know why her mind recalls that moment, maybe because Anna’s red hair, reminds her about some of the roses her mother had in the garden. Or maybe because of their hands are together right now. 

_ ‘Wait, what!?’  _ suddenly Elsa is aware of what she’s doing with her thumb on Anna’s hand. She looks at the younger woman face, seeing a little blush that’s coming on it. The blonde can feel herself blushing too, and immediately she takes her hand back, leaving Anna’s in mid-air. The redhead understands what her doctors doesn’t said aloud. She knows that the blonde didn’t want to seem rude.

“There’s no reason to apologize. I understand, I’m a patient, you’re my doctor, and it’s unprofessional. Yesterday I shouldn’t have asked that, and I’m sorry. But, I’m glad that you are here, not only because you brought me pizza, but you bought my favorite one. Thanks you, doc.” She smiles at Elsa, that is glad that her patient doesn’t comment what happened a few seconds before.

“I’m glad you liked it.” Elsa says trying to put herself together. 

“Will you be here tomorrow, right?” 

“Yes and you’ll be home soon.” Elsa notices a bit of sadness in Anna’s eyes. _‘No.. don’t be sad..’_

“When am I going home?” Anna says quietly.

“As soon as your father is satisfied about your improvement. As far as concern me, you’re free to go even tomorrow. Your heart is fine, the only thing you need to worry about is your broken leg, but it’s nothing serious. You’ll come back here to take off the plaster cast.”

“My father has the final word, then.”

“Exactly. Something wrong?” Elsa can’t help but sound a bit concerned about the redhead attitude. She’s too quiet. 

_ ‘I just don’t want to leave you. I’d like to tell you how much I’m enjoying talking to you.. Even if you’re still a bit cold, you start to be more comfortable with me. I’m afraid once I leave you, you’ll return to be cold as you were at the beginning.’  _ Anna notices she’s mentally talking to herself. She quickly compose herself. “No, there’s nothing wrong.” She smiles to the blonde.

“All right then. I’m sorry, but I think it’s time for me to go, I’m not supposed to be here. And tomorrow I have to come back to work.” Elsa says as she stands up.

“Sure. This will be our secret.” Anna points out the carton of the pizza. 

“Thanks. Take some rest now, good night Miss Summers.” Elsa says once she’s at the threshold of Anna’s room.

“Good night, Dr. Winters.” She smiles at the blonde and once she’s out she whispers to herself “Thanks..”

It’s 2am when Anna wakes up. She isn’t sleepy, which is strange. She has a lot in her mind. She keeps recalling the evening with her doctor. She looks at her hands.

_ ‘She held my hands.. her thumb was playing on my skin. Her hands are so cold, maybe she has a low blood pressure?’  _ She reaches her phone and checks if there are messages. Only one from her cousin Sven. 

_ “Ehy feisty-pants! How are you doing? Today I went to Tania’s  and she asked me to tell you that as soon as you come back we are going to her, she’ll bake your favorite cake! You need to tell me everything about this Ice Queen! You stopped telling me what’s happening, do I need to talk to Kristoff? You know he would tell me anything, I’m his little brother after all. See you tomorrow, I’m coming to the hospital with Kristoff! Good night, love you.” _

Anna closes her phone, and watches at the window, thinking about everything and nothing. She thinks about her little cousin Sven, who’s turning 18years old at the end of this week. She realizes she doesn’t have yet the present for him, that’s not good, she needs to go shopping. 

She closes her eyes for a moment and she sees her doctor’s face. She opens them, she doesn’t know why she doesn’t want to come home, she wants to be near to the blonde. She knows she can’t, after all, she’s just her doctor. _‘A sexy doctor.’_ Anna’s eyes are now wide open at her thought. _‘What the hell am I thinking!? I can’t think about her in that way.. or can I?’_ Anna starts recalling her doctors figure, her long blonde hair in that well done braid, that run down her left shoulder. Her pale yet beautiful skin. Her icy blue eyes. Those eyes are something magical. She bets that for a brief moment during their lunch those eyes, usually blank, were alive. There was something, some emotion she doesn’t know right now. She hopes one day she’ll be able to see that emotion again.

_ “Anna, you know that you’re talking about the Ice Queen?” Kristoff tells her that morning. _

_ “Yes! I’m aware of that, thanks. I only asked her if she wanted to eat with me.. nothing else.” Anna is telling to her cousin what happened the last evening. _

_ “She’s too professional to do something like that, don’t let your hope raise. I know what you want to do.” He sends her a warning look. “She’s not like the others. She’s different, she’s-” _

_ “She’s a person! Just like you and me. I bet she’s alone, she doesn’t have any friends. And you know why? Because everyone, including you, think that she’s only a bitch with a frozen heart! But I don’t think so. Probably she has a particular past. Why are you acting just like the others!?”  _

_ “Anna.. My opinion about her isn’t what you think. But, let’s be honest. Sometimes she’s a bitch.” _

_ “Not with me. I’ve never seen her acting like everyone say. Only because she does her job very well!?” _

_ “No, because she doesn’t let anyone near her.” Kristoff doesn’t think about Elsa like everyone, he thinks she’s a great doctor and an excellent teacher. Anna knows that, because Kristoff           told her. When they’re alone the topic of the conversation is always about Elsa.  _

_ “You’ll see.” Anna says those words with a lot of determination. She wants to prove Kristoff that Elsa isn’t like that, but that she is a nice person who can be near someone and be friendly. _

She notice that during their dinner Elsa was friendly and let Anna be near her, even touch her. She can feel her heartbeat speeds as she thinks about the blonde. She starts feeling warm on her cheek, and she starts to realize it. She likes her doctor. She likes the Ice Queen. She likes Elsa Winters.


	11. Chapter 11

Kristoff comes in his cousin’s room, with him there’s Sven, his little brother. They find Anna watching at the window, she doesn’t notice their arrival. Kristoff decides to scare her a little, he puts his finger on his lips wordless telling Sven to stay quiet, he nods to his bigger brother and keeps his mouth shut. They slowly walk near Anna’s bed, Kristoff has his arms ready to tickle the redhead, and Sven is crawling, his plan is to suddenly jump and made his cousin screams a bit.

Kristoff’s hands reach Anna’s hips and tackle her, she jumps a little on her bed and quickly turns her head to the attacker, at this point Sven stands up with his arms on the air and making strange noises. She lets out a little scream and watches at them in shock.

“What the hell guys!?Lucky me I’m already at the hospital!” although she wants to sound pissed, she can’t. She enjoys this moment with her cousins. They all start to laugh.

“You should have seen your face! It was priceless.” Sven tries to say to her, but all that comes out of his mouth is only laughter.

After a little bit Sven hugs Anna.

“I missed you Anna! How are you?” Anna gives him a quick kiss on his cheek, on the contrary of his bigger brother, the show of affection doesn’t bothers Sven.

“I’m fine, soon I’ll be home..” she says trying to cover the little sadness in her voice, but Kristoff notices it and sends her a confused look.

“Anna, what’s wrong? Aren’t you happy that you’re coming home soon?”

“Yeah, I’m happy about that..” _‘but I want to stay with Elsa..’_  She tries to smile, she doesn’t want to talk about this right now. Kristoff keeps looking at her, he wants to know what’s the matter with her, even if I has an idea, but he understands that she seems to not want to talk about it now, once they’re alone and Sven is at school, he’s ask her about it.

“So, tell me Sven, why are you here today? Shouldn’t you be at school?” Sven sits on a side of the bed and looks at the broken leg.

“The English teacher couldn’t come at school, we start lesson an hour later and since the hospital isn’t too far away from the school I decided to come here with Kristoff and then go to school. I just wanted to see you!” His eyes leave the broken leg to go and meet the redhead’s eyes, he smiles. “I’m happy to know that you’re doing better.”

“Yeah, that’s because she has a great doctor.” Kristoff says looking at Anna’s face. She can’t help a little blush on her cheeks even if she tries to suppress it.

“Well, yes, she’s great, a lot better than this one here.” She jokes and chuckles a bit _._

“Ehy, every day I save lives here, that should mean something.” Sven looks at them thinking about how much he’s lucky to have a family like this.

“Okay guys, you need to update me on the Ice Queen! Come on, tell me, what’s happening in these days?” at this question Anna can feel her cheeks burning even more than before.

“Nothing important, you know? Yesterday she wasn’t here. But in general she’s great.” She lets a little smile coming on her lips as soon as she remembers her doctor’s face when she was eating the pizza.  

“Oh really? She wasn’t there? What a pity.. Why wasn’t she at the hospital? Do you know?”

“I guess it was some personal stuff, I don’t know, do you know Kristoff?”

“No, I’m sorry I don’t know.” After he says those words he checks his watch. “Sven I guess it’s time for you to go or you lose the bus. Remember to call mom, so she can pick you up.”

“Oh come on! Already? I don’t want to..” his bigger brother sends him a look, and he stays quiet. He stands up and gives a kiss on Anna’s cheek. “All right, see you soon Anna! Bye!” and he walks out leaving the two young adult alone.

Kristoff takes a chair and sits on it, his eyes never leave Anna’s ones. His hand on his chin and nods to himself.

“So, what’s going on?” the redhead seems a little confused.

“I.. I don’t know what you mean..” he sighs.

“Anna, I know there’s something going on with you. You know you can tell me everything you want.”

Anna looks at her hands which are on her lap and debates with herself about telling or not telling Kristoff. She knows she shouldn’t tell him anything, but he’s also is cousin, he’s like a brother to her, she knows she can trust him. He’s always been there for her.

“I don’t know.. it’s complicated.”

“Anna with you is always complicated. Just know, that I’ll be always there for you.” He sends her a comfort look.

“I guess I like someone..” Anna says so quietly that it makes difficult for Kristoff to hear those words.

“You like someone? Who?”

“I can’t tell you..” Anna looks away from him. Kristoff has an idea of who this someone is, but he’d like her to tell him.

“Anna, do I know this person?”

“Yes..”

“You know that I support you no matter what, right?” He puts an hand on her shoulder to comfort her, he knows that probably this is a hard for her.

Anna’s never came out directly to her family, Kristoff always thought that she might like women, but he never asked her in which team she played. He doesn’t care, he loves her cousin no matter what.

“It’s a woman. I like a woman.” Anna says a little afraid to watch him in the eyes.

“Anna, look at me, don’t be afraid.. I won’t judge you, this woman, you like her, and that’s fine. As soon as it’s not Mandy.” He manages to make her cousin chuckles a bit.  

“No, I don’t like Mandy, don’t worry, she’s all yours.” Anna finally looks at him and see only love from his eyes. She’s glad that he still loves her even if she likes someone of her same gender.

“So, I know her.. have I to guess who she is or you’ll tell me?” he crosses his arms waiting for her to tell the name.

“I.. I’m not ready to tell you who she is.. I’ll tell you, but not right now.. okay?” this isn’t the Anna he knows, she’s so different, so insecure, but he understands.

“That’s okay, don’t worry. I’ll wait until you’re ready.” she moves her arms in a way that tell to Kristoff to come closer. He notices the message she’s sending to him and hugs his dear cousin.

“Thanks Kris, it’s mean a lot to me that you doesn’t pull me away only because I like a woman. You’re like a brother to me.”

“You can always trust on me.” He gives her a little kiss on her forehead.

“I know. Now, enough with all about me, let’s talk about Mandy!!” Kristoff starts blushing.

“Today I’ll ask her out for Friday’s evening. I’d like to take her to Tania’s restaurant.”

“That’s a good idea, she’ll like there, I’m sure of it. But you’re taking so long, you should have asked her yet.”

“I know.. but I wasn’t sure, I was afraid but today is the day.” He says standing up and showing his determination. Anna chuckles at him.

After a while Kristoff leaves her cousin’s room and goes to check on his patients. Everything is fine in these days, the patients are getting better, sometimes he does some surgeries, but nothing too serious. After he does the rounds, he goes and check if he’s in shift on the ER. Since he’s off of the ER, he decides to go to Anna’s room, it isn’t lunch time yet, so he can’t go to Mandy and ask her out.

As he’s reaching to Anna’s room, he sees Elsa, who’s about to enter in the room. He calls her out and she turns to him.

“Dr. Bijorman, what can I do for you?”

“Morning, I wanted to ask you how Anna’s doing and if I can stay with you today for a while.” She looks at him with a confused look.

“Have you already done the rounds?”

“Yes and everything is fine, I checked everyone, the pre and post-operations.” She looks at the papers she has on her hands.

“Okay, you can stay with me for a while, but I’d like you to stay quiet, remember that you’re not in this case.” He nods and smiles to himself. He can watch how those two acts when they’re together.

They enter in the room and suddenly Anna’s face changes expression. Kristoff remembers how she was when he came in the early morning.

“Morning Doc. So, what are we going to do today?” She smiles at Elsa. Kristoff notices how the redhead’s eyes sparkle and she seems so alive. Then he looks at his boss and sees how she changes her posture. She’s relaxed but a bit nervous, Kristoff is shocked after noticing something on his boss’s face. _‘What?! She’s about to blush! Seriously?’_

“Good morning Miss Summers, we’re going to do a check up and then we’ll see if your father is favorable on your dismiss.” At that both faces of the women changes. Kristoff is watching everything that those two are doing, how they look at each other. He has the confirmation that Anna like Dr. Winters, and he suspect that the doctors likes the redhead too. He’s never seen his boss shows some kind of emotion. It’s strange for Kristoff to see Elsa walks closer to Anna and starts with taking the blood pressure. Usually she lets nurses or him to do this exams. Another thing he notices that it’s odd, is that they talk with each other. Even if Elsa doesn’t speak a lot, she talks with her. There’s this interesting situation between those two and Kristoff starts thinking that this is the beginning of something really special.

After the check up it’s done, the two doctors leaves Anna’s room. They’re walking to Elsa’s office, she doesn’t said anything, she looking at the papers on her hands and he simply follow her. After all, he doesn’t have nothing to do for now. Elsa opens her office’s door and suddenly turns around seeing Kristoff behind her.

“Would you come in?” He looks at her confused but nods. They enters and Elsa goes to her desk, while Kristoff sits on a chair in front of the desk. He notices the little snow globe and lets out a little smile.

“So, how is doing my cousin?” Elsa puts the papers down and looks at him.

“She’s fine, beside her broken leg everything is okay with her. I only need her father consent to dismiss her and send her home. Do you two live together?” He shakes his head.

“No, she’s just moved in a new apartment near her university.” Elsa looks for a brief moment at the snow globe.

“Okay, but for a while it’s better if she doesn’t live alone, only because she needs to do some injections for the leg.”  Kristoff is sure that for a very short moment he saw a little bit of worry on her face.

“I guess she’ll stay to her parent’s home. So there’s no need to worry about that.” He keeps his eyes on Elsa’s face, he’s enjoying staying there and find out if she feels the same about Anna or not. It’s like he’s a some kind of spy.

Elsa doesn’t want to lift her eyes and meet Kristoff’s ones, she feels exposed but she doesn’t know why she’s feeling like this.

“Dr. Winters everything okay?” he sounds a little bit concerned.

“Yes, everything is fine.” Kristoff isn’t sure if what he’s going to say after it’s a good idea or not, but at the moment he doesn’t care.

“I’ve noticed that you act differently with Anna. I know I don’t know you  and I’m not in the position to make any assumption, but in these days you two are acting differently.” He says carefully. Elsa stays quiet for a moment, which it’s strange, he would have bet that at this point she would have said to get out of the office or to shut up because he was nobody to say something like that. Instead there’s a quiet moment between the two doctors.

 _‘What’s happening to me in these days? He said that I act differently, how is it possible? Maybe he saw us yesterday? No, I don’t think so.’_  She remembers that yesterday evening he wasn’t at the hospital. She’s aware that she hasn’t yet told a word to him after his statement. She knows that it’s strange for her, usually she doesn’t let people make assumption about her. _‘I changed. I’m changing.’_

She looks at him, she knows that he’s debating with himself if he did a right choice in telling her that or not.

“I guess you’re right. I’m acting differently and honestly I’m not sure why, but I can assure you that my doctor’s skills are intact.”

“I wasn’t implying that you’re skills weren’t intact.. I’ve just.. I’m sorry.” And he is. He doesn’t want her to think that with those words he was saying that she wasn’t the surgeon she was before.

“No, I am sorry. I know you weren’t saying that.” Kristoff is once again shocked about her boss’s new attitude. _‘Did she said that she’s sorry? Wow she is changing.’_

“I know we aren’t friends but colleagues, but.. if there’s something wrong, you can tell me.” He knows that he’s pushing too far saying that, but he couldn’t help it.

Elsa is silent again. _‘Things are changing in my life.’_ She sighs. “Thanks Dr. Bijorman.” He smiles at her, but she doesn’t smile back.

“I guess I’ll leave you alone.” Kristoff says while standing up.

“Just one more thing, please.” He stops his movements. “Tells Anna that in a while it’s time for her injection.” He’s perplex. Did he hear correctly? She said “Anna” and not “Miss Summers”? He notices the scared look of Elsa and decides that it’s better to not say anything about that.

“All right, see you later Dr. Winters.” He exits from the office with a grin on his face.

 _‘Shit. Did I say Anna!?’_ Elsa puts her head between her hands and closes her eyes. _‘Damn. What’s going on with me!?’_

Kristoff enters Anna’s room, she’s listening to some music on her iPod. He pokes at Anna’s shoulder to catch her attention. She turns around her head and sees Kristoff. She takes off her headphones.

“It’s Elsa, isn’t she?” He says with a grin.

Anna looks at him with shock in her eyes. _‘How did he..?’_


	12. Chapter 12

Anna keeps her  eyes focused on Kristoff’s. She doesn’t know how could he possibly understand that she likes Elsa. How did he understand? Is she that obvious? She can’t help but be shocked and speechless.

“How…what..eh!?” She says to herself in a whisper. Kristoff chuckles and sits next to his cousin. He takes her hands and squeezes them.

“Anna, calm down. Just tell me if I’m wrong or right. Do you like her? I won’t tell her, don’t worry.”

Anna looks at his cousin, she can clearly see that he means what he’s saying, he won’t tell her doctor anything. He’s trustworthy.

“Yes. It’s her.” She says with a soft voice. Her lips show a little smile.

“I knew it!” Kristoff says while he’s putting her hands up just like fans do when their favorite team win a match.

“How did you find out it’s her?” Anna watches him with a curious look. His cousin is really something.

“I understood it this morning. When I was here with Elsa. She acted differently than always and I saw how you were so alive next to her. I looked at your eyes and I understood. You’re like an open-book to me, dear cousin.” He smirks to her.

She punches his shoulder.

“Oh come on! I wasn’t that obvious!”

“Well, maybe she didn’t notice it, but I did. I told you, I know you and I don’t miss a thing.”

She doesn’t even remember that Kristoff was there that morning, she was focused only on Elsa. How can somebody not notice how gorgeous is she?

Kristoff smiles at the younger woman. He’s happy that she likes someone, he just hopes that she won’t be rejected. He may not know very well his boss, but he can say that she doesn’t let people in and it could be difficult for Anna to gain some room in the Ice Queen’s heart. But maybe, thinking about that morning and how Elsa spoke about Anna and how she acted with her, the redhead already has a special place on the blonde doctor’s heart.

“You know, I’m happy that you now know who I like. One thing less to say to you.” The young woman says. Then her face changes. “Oh.. but soon I’ll be sent at home and I won’t see her again..”

Kristoff understand what his cousin is trying to say with those words.

“That’s not entirely true. You know, you can come back here. You need to check on your leg and you can come to visit me at work and with that excuse you can see her too. So it’s not over between you two. Why don’t you ask her for her phone number or I don’t know?”

“Do you think she would give me her number..?”

Kristoff thinks about it, he suggested it but he isn’t really sure that his boss would give it to her.

“You can always try whenever you’re ready or want.” He says thinking that would be enough for now. She nods and watches at the clock in the room.

“I guess you need to do something now.” He looks at her confused, but when he notices the time he knows what she’s implying.

“Shit.. I need to go! See you later!” He runs out of the room to go to the cafeteria.

Anna chuckles to herself watching her cousin. She thinks he shouldn’t be late today, he has to ask Mandy out. She puts her headphones on and presses play on her iPod.

 

Kristoff is now at the cafeteria and watches around him to see if Mandy is there somewhere. He finds her at a table, she’s eating a salad with some chicken. He takes a deep breath, runs an hand through his hairs and walks to her.

“Hi Mandy.” He says a bit nervous. The pediatric nurse turns her head and looks at him and with a knowing smile she says.

“Oh, hello Dr. Bijorman.” He can’t help to smile at her greeting.

“I-I wanted to know how are you doing..?” He’s still nervous, he’s afraid that she will reject him.

“I’m fine, thanks. And you? How is your cousin Anna?”

“She’s fine, soon she’ll come back at home.” He swallows hard and decides that it’s time. It’s time to be a man and ask to the woman he thinks he loves that question. The question. “Mandy, I was thinking.. are you free Friday evening?” Mandy looks at him, she understands what he’s trying to ask to her.

“I don’t have any plan, why?” she smiles at him. His confidence increase at that answer.

“W-would you like to go out with me? For a dinner?” she stays silent for second just to enjoy the view of the young man in front of her who is dying from nervousness.

“As a date?”

“Y-yes.”

“Then..my answer is..” she tries to look like she’s going to reject the offer. He doesn’t understand what’s happening, why doesn’t she just tell him yes or no? Is she rejecting him?

“Yes. I’d love to go out for a date with you, Kristoff.” She smiles at him.

He can’t believe in what it’s happening, she said yes. He has just succeeded in asking her out. He wasn’t rejected. He can’t help but nods to himself and be as happy as he could be. _‘This is the best day of my life.’_

 Elsa is in her office reading at the same papers she kept holding during all morning.

Those papers are from the courthouse.

Hans will stay in jail for a long time, she’s finally safe. He won’t come back. She can close that dark chapter of her life. She can start to live. She has a chance to be happy.

She reaches her bag which is in a locker in her office and takes out from it her wallet. She opens it and takes an old photo. She returns to her chair and watches at the picture and a little tear runs on her cheek.

“Mother, father.. I’m sorry if I don’t make you proud of me. I don’t know if you’re watching at me from wherever you are, if you are, I am sorry for what happened to me. I am sorry I wasn’t brave enough to fight for myself back then. But I tried to do the right thing during this past weeks. And now, the other women and I are safe. He won’t harm anyone anymore.”

The picture shows Katherine and Joseph Winters holding a little Elsa. In this photo she’s 6 years old, it’s Christmas and they’re next the fireplace. This is one of the best memories of Elsa’s childhood. Despite her parents were strict, they loved her and this photo is the proof. Little Elsa has in her hands a stuffed animal, it’s a cat. She remembers that she kept asking for her parents for a cat, but her mother was allergic to it, so her father decided to buy a stuffed cat trying to make his daughter happy, even if it wasn’t a real cat. And she was.

After some moments holding that picture between her hands, Elsa hears a knock on her office’s door.

“Come in.” after a second the door opens. “Dr. Summers, what can I do for you?”

He smiles at her. “Good morning, Dr. Winters. I wanted to see my daughter’s medical record, you told me that she could be send home soon.” At that she can feel some pain on her chest. Is she having an heart attack? No. She just doesn’t like to remember that Anna will be dismissed soon and she won’t see her again. She searches for the papers the man asked for and handles them.

“Here and yes, she’s doing fine. As I told you, my only concern is about her broken leg, she needs to take care of it and have her daily injections.” He looks at her and then at his daughter’s medical record.

“So her heart is fine?”

“Yes, sir.”

“All right, then she’ll be dismissed.” She nods and takes again the papers and puts them on her desk. “And tomorrow you’ll be assigned again to your patients. Dr. Bijorman has done a wonderful work, but he still needs to learn a lot.”

“Sure.” He nods and walks out from the office leaving Elsa alone.

She looks at her clock and notices that it’s time for Anna’s injection. _‘Tomorrow I won’t need to be in her room. Tomorrow I’ll come back to my patients. Tomorrow I’ll be a surgeon again, I won’t be a babysitter anymore. Then.. why am I not happy about it? Why am I upset? I shouldn’t be. She’s just a patient. Isn’t she..?’_ She stands up from her chair and reaches the doorknob. She takes a breath and walks to that room.

 

_“Oh her eyes, her eyes_

_Make the stars looks they’re not shining._

_Her hair, her hair_

_Falls perfectly without her trying_

_She’s so beautiful and I tell her every day._

_Yeah.”_

Anna smiles thinking about someone’s braid on her shoulder. She’s always loved that song and it’s nice that it comes right now, it that specific moment.

_“When I see your face_

_There’s not a thing I would change_

_‘Cause you’re amazing_

_Just the way you are_

_And when you smile_

_The whole word stops and stares for a while_

_‘Cause, girl, you’re amazing_

_Just the way you are.”_

Elsa is in the threshold watching at the redhead, listening to her wonderful voice. She doesn’t believe she ever heard a voice like that, it’s a voice of.. an angel, maybe? She doesn’t know, but she could spend hours just listening to her.

Anna isn’t aware of the blonde frozen at the door. She just keeps singing that song. And hearing the lyrics all she can think about is her doctor.

_“Her lips, her lips_

_I could kiss them all day if she’d let me_

_Her laugh, her laugh_

_She hates but I think it’s so sexy_

_She’s so beautiful_

_And I tell her every day.”_

Elsa doesn’t know why but feels something unpleasant in her stomach, because it’s something she never experienced before. With that feeling she can feel her body warm up, another thing that she isn’t used to feel.

She decides that it’s time to interrupt the redhead, even if she doesn’t want to, but she has to. She needs those feelings go away for now. She walks near Anna and notices that she doesn’t seem to be aware of the blonde’s presence. She touches carefully the redhead’s shoulder and she stops immediately singing and turns her head.

Anna’s face become red in record time and she takes off her headphones and looks embarrassed.

 “Oh.. hi Doc!!” She says a little bit too loud making the blonde blinks for a moment and take a step back.

“You.. you sing very well.” The doctor manages to say.

“Thanks..” if it’s possible Anna blushes even more than before. She can’t believe her crush has just complimented her.

After an awkward silence between the two woman, Elsa decides to speak first, she clears her throat.

“So.. I’m here because it’s time for your injection and to let you know that tomorrow you’ll be no longer a patient of this hospital. You’ll be back at home.”

“Oh..” that’s all she can say at the moment. She lets the blonde to do her job. The doctor takes her arm and starts with the injection, trying to not harm her. She gently rubs the skin before and after the action. She knows that this isn’t something she has to do, but deep inside of her, Elsa doesn’t want a nurse to touch Anna. She doesn’t understand why she’s acting so strangely in these days. Everything started when Anna came in the ER. She changed almost everything in Elsa’s life, and she doesn’t understand why she lets her doing so. Elsa isn’t the kind of person who lets people near to her, nothing less lets people change her way to interact.

Anna takes courage and speaks up “I won’t be able to see you again..”

At that Elsa stops rubbing Anna’s skin and looks in the redhead’s eyes. She sees sadness in them and she’s aware there’s a bit of it in her eyes too. She knows she is showing her emotions right now, but she can’t help to do that and she sadly sighs.

“Yes. Honestly I hope I won’t see you again..” the doctors says but as soon as she realizes what she’s just said she notices Anna’s eyes that are about to let a little tear coming down. She quickly speaks again trying to explain herself better.

“I mean.. I don’t want to see you again the ER.. especially if it’s something relating to your heart. I just want you to be well, not that I don’t enjoy your company..” Elsa blinks at her words, just like Anna does. _‘What!? I’ve just said this!? I’ve just admitted I enjoy her company.. oh God. I shouldn’t expose myself like this..’_

“I enjoy your company too. You’re not like everyone thinks. You’re a good person and it’s nice being next to you, you should let people in, you know?” She says softly at her doctor. Elsa stays quiet for a moment, she doesn’t know how to respond to that.

“I’m not comfortable in letting people in.. and honestly I don’t care what people think about me.” _‘I care about what you think about me..wait what!?’_ “And it’s not like we won’t see each other again, you’ll need to come back her to check on your leg and take off the plaster cast.”

“Right, I guess I can’t stay with that forever.” She points at the white solid bandage on her broken leg. Suddenly she realizes that this will be their last day together in that room, maybe she could manage to do something special. She comes up with a brilliant idea.

“I think I have an issue. A big one.”

Elsa looks confused at her patients words. “Which is?”

“Well, you know my favorite pizza.” Elsa is more confused than before, she doesn’t understand why she’s talking about that, then Anna talks again. “I need to find out which one is your favorite, maybe we could some pizza this evening after your shifts ends.”

Elsa sees the hope in the younger woman’s eyes, she doesn’t think about it twice.

“It would be nice, try to guess it. When I come back here, before my shift ends, you’ll tell me which is my favorite pizza, and if you’re right, we’ll have another pizza night.” Elsa can’t believe she’s just said that. She fights a smile and starts walking away when Anna stops her with her voice.

“I think we’ll have another secret dinner together.” Anna smiles to her beautiful doctor and knows that she’s falling deep for her.

Elsa nods to her incredible patient and exits from the office. It’s the first time in her life that she’s acting like this, and she wants, she needs to understand why. She walks to her office and takes her phone.

“Ehy, I need to ask you something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody! I hope you like the new chapter. I know that maybe "Just the way you are" is a bit of a cliché, but when I was reaching that point that song played on my iPod and I thought "well.. maybe it could be a nice idea putting it there."


	13. Chapter 13

Elsa is locked in her office, she doesn’t want to be bother by anyone while she’s making an important phone call. She needs to understand a few things, so she’s calling someone she thinks could help.

_ “Elsa, it’s nice to hear from you again. What do you need?” _ at the other line there’s Marshall. That morning he sent her the paper from the courthouse and he thinks she has some questions about it. _“Is something about those papers?”_

She shakes her head then she realizes that she’s on the phone and he can’t see her movements.

“No, it’s not that. Actually I think is something more important..”

_ “What do you mean?” _

“I don’t understand why in these days I’m acting differently..” the blonde doctor mumbles.

_ “Elsa, do you realize that if I don’t know what’s going on I can’t really help you?” _ He chuckles at her friend’s words. 

“You’re right.. sorry, you see?! Usually I should explain everything from the start..”

_ “Well, yes,  that’s odd. But, just try to explain me, so that I can help you, all right?” _

“Okay, so. There’s this woman, she’s my patient. Well, she shouldn’t be, but she’s the daughter of the Chief and he decided that I should have been her doctor. She came in the ER for a broken leg, you know I’m a cardiac surgeon, so they shouldn’t have called me on my pager, right? But my intern did, because she had a history of cardiac’s problem. Her father wanted me as her doctor, he took away all my patients and gave them to my intern. I had only this one patient, this woman. She’s younger than me, she has beautiful red hair and turquoise eyes, she talks a lot, but I don’t mind, well maybe at the beginning, but then I get used to her rambling, she can sing very well, she has a nice voice. She’s my intern’s cousin,” Marshall tries to hold back his chuckle, he can’t believe she is the one rambling now about how the younger woman is. Elsa notices what she’s saying and clears her throat. 

“So, at first I let some nurse doing some exams, but then I began to do them to myself. I check on her every day. I don’t know why but I started to do things differently, for example now I’m the one who checks her blood pressure, usually nurses do that. Yesterday evening I did something I thought I would never have done. The other day she told me she was sick of eating hospital’s food and asked for some ‘real’ food, and she asked me to eat with her, but I told her that I couldn’t do that, because it was inappropriate for a doctor do something like that with a patient. But yesterday I don’t know.. I came here at the hospital and brought with me a pizza. We ate it together.” She sighs remembering that evening. She can’t help but thinking about the redhead’s smile, it’s probably the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen in her life. “It’s not something I would usually do!!” She exclaims exasperated.

Marshall takes a moment to think about her friend’s situation. He knows how she is: she’s shy, she doesn’t let people in, she follows rules. 

_ “I think it’s pretty clear, dear.” _ Elsa looks at the wall with a confused look, she doesn’t know how could it be clear! It’s a mess in the blonde’s eyes, she doesn’t understand anything.

“How can you say that!?”

_ “Well, you start to like her. She seems to be the opposite of you, you know? It’s like the yin and the yang. It’s quiet funny.”  _  He chuckles as he tries to imagine those two women in a room talking with each others. Elsa would be like a little panda, calm and shy, and the other woman would be like a little puppy, running around her and trying to communicate with Elsa. 

“I can’t like her, I barely know her.”

_ “That doesn’t mean anything. You can like a person even if you don’t know her, you said you stay only with her in these days, right? Well, you’re getting used to her company and you seem to be interested in this girl, maybe only just in a friendship way.”  _

The doctor thinks about it for a moment. Maybe he’s right, she doesn’t mind being in Anna’s company, actually if she has to choose, she’d like to stay with her longer.

“Should I try to be friend with her..?” she tentatively asks to Marshall. 

_ “It could be a nice idea. See how this things between you two go. You could even enjoy how your relationship would develop.” _ He’d like to see this person. _‘This girl must be something. Making Elsa this insecure, I need to meet her.’_

“Okay then.. thanks Marshall.” she hangs up and puts her phone in her pocket. 

Does she likes Anna? She exits from her office while she keeps asking the same question. To be a friend with the redhead, well it will be a new experience to her. She really doesn’t tried to have some friends, except for Marshall. She doesn’t know how to start, should she just act as she’s acting now? Should she do something different? 

_ ‘Damn.. I should have asked to Marshall how to be friend with her.. I can’t call him again..’ _

“Dr. Winters!” the called doctor turns her head towards the familiar voice. 

“Dr. Bijorman, how can I help you?” he’s running to her.

“It’s..” he’s trying to catch his breath. “I tried to call you.” She watched at her pager. 

“Shit.. it’s dead.” She mumbles to herself then she directs her attention to Kristoff “Tell me, what’s going on?”

“There’s an emergency in Anna’s room.”

Immediately after those words Elsa is running to Anna’s room. She doesn’t know what’s happening, she’s cursing herself for not checking on her pager. She can’t believe that now there’s an unknown emergency in the redhead’s room. She had just one job. Keep an eye on her. She should have left the hospital tomorrow, so why on heart she’s having a freaking emergency call?

Luckily her office isn’t too far away from that room, while they’re running she can see nurses coming in Anna’s room. The only thing she can hear is _‘code blue’_. She doesn’t want to believe it, she doesn’t know why she’s this worried about the redhead.

Once they’re inside the room, they watch as a nurse is doing the cardiac reanimation. Kristoff is frozen in the threshold, he wants to close his eyes, to run away, but he stays there, just like a doctor would do. He isn’t his cousin’s doctor, but he wants to do something but he can’t, he just can’t move. 

Elsa is for only a second in the same position of her intern. She doesn’t even hear well what the nurse is saying to her. It’s just like she’s in a bubble and all she can hear is the sound of the monitor that shows the heartbeat of the redhead: it’s flat and there’s that too awfully familiar constant _“beep”_. She heard it too many times, but this time it’s different. Right there, in that bed there’s someone special to her. _‘No. I can’t lose her. Not now.’_

After that second of being frozen she reaches the nurse and makes her move, she starts with the compressions and tries to make Anna’s heart beating again. While she’s pushing her hands on the redhead’s chest, a nurse gives her the oxygen through the mask. 

Elsa stops for a second to watch at the monitor, still flat. She takes the defibrillator and does what she’s best at. Make start again the heart.

She isn’t a really religious person and it’s not because she’s a doctor, a woman of science. But because she’s always thought that if there’s a God, ten why bad things keep happening? Why had her parents to die in a damn airplane crash? Why was she raped from Hans? Why doesn’t Anna’s heart beat? Why? She doesn’t have an answer to those questions, and she doesn’t even know why but she’s praying for God to give her Anna back. She’s praying for her heart to start beating again. She’s praying to be able to hear that angelic voice again. 

She shocks one more time. She doesn’t want to give up on her even if she knows very well that there’s a chance that she could not-

_ Beep Beep _

“It’s beating…” Elsa mumbles while she’s watching at the monitor: it isn’t flat anymore. Her eyes go down to the redhead’s chest and the doctor lets out a sigh in relief when she sees that Anna’s chest restarts to raise and fall alone. She turns her head toward Kristoff to see tears in his face.

“Kristoff, she’s fine..” she mumbles. This isn’t like her, normally she wouldn’t mumble, she wouldn’t look so fragile and relieved. But well, that girl in the bed is special. 

Elsa walks to Kristoff and puts her hands on his shoulders, she’s trying to comfort him. At that right moment Anna’s father is running.

“What happened!? Kristoff how’s Anna!? Dr. Winters!” He looks at them with worried and scared eyes. “Is she d..is she..” he starts to think at the worse because of the tears in his nephew eyes, but quickly Elsa takes control on the situation.

“She’s fine, her heart started to beat again. She’s fine now.” 

He gives a loud sigh in relief but soon enough his face changes. “You told me she was fine.”

“I.. from the exam we did her heart was doing fine, I don’t know what happened..” She confesses, she truly doesn’t know how it was possible. She’s terribly sorry for what happened, she thinks that this is her fault, maybe the pizza of the last evening? No, that’s impossible.

Kai Summers looks at his cardiac surgeon, he can see the worry in her eyes and he’s surprised that she’s showing some kind of emotion, he looks at Kristoff and see how she keeps an hand on his shoulder. He pretends to not notice it and goes to her daughter.

“Elsa..” Kristoff mumbles watching shocked at her hand on him. She follow his gaze and takes away her limb. 

“Sorry..”

“No problem.. thanks for what you’ve done.” He watches inside at the room and see how his uncle caress his cousin’s hair. He can’t understand what happened, she was fine that morning. “She was going to come back at home.. what happened?” he looks to Elsa now. She hesitates for a moment.

“I wish I knew.” Kristoff reaches his uncle next to Anna.

She remains still at the threshold while nurses and her family goes away. She enters slowly, watching at the sleeping woman. Instinctively she adjusts the blanket on the redhead’s body, she doesn’t know why but she wants her to be warmer.

She goes for a moment to her office and returns immediately to Anna. She sits in a chair next to Anna’s bed. She takes her medical record and read it with great care: she needs to find out what happened and if she missed something. She turns her laptop on and checks on her recently exams.

She’s her only patient and she hasn’t nothing to do. Elsa could stay at her office working on Anna’s case, but something deep inside her say to stay there, next to her. Just in case. She doesn’t want her to have another attack like that.

It’s been hours since she’s there, Anna is still sleeping, sometimes the blonde check her heartbeat with her stethoscope. After a while her eyes are starting to feel heavy and she slowly falls asleep. 

_ “Mom, what means ‘love’?” a little 7 years old Elsa is sitting on the living room’s couch, next to her there’s her mother, who’s drinking some hot chocolate. It’s Elsa’s birthday, her father will come back soon from work. Her mother is off from work, because she wants to stay all day with her daughter. She smiles at the little girl in front of her who is holding a dictionary. _

_ “The dictionary says something.. but I don’t understand..” _

_ “It’s complicated to answer at that question dear.” She takes the dictionary from her daughter’s hands and closes it. _

_ “You know sweetie, love is something that you can find here.” She pokes at the little girl’s heart. “It’s a complicated feelings, there are different kind of it, there’s the love that you share with your family, for example the love your father and I have for you and you have for us. There’s the love for things you like, for example chocolate.” She chuckles at her daughter’s surprised face.  _

_ “Then there’s the love you share with the person you want to spend the rest of your life with and to have a family with. For example the love I share with your father. It’s not easy to understand it, it comes in different shapes and in mysterious ways.” Little Elsa shows a confused look her mother handles her some hot chocolate. _

_ “When you grow up, you’ll find someone special that makes you feel complete, and you’ll understand. For now, enjoy your chocolate, birthday girl.” She kisses her daughter’s forehead and looks at the fireplace. _

Elsa slowly opens her eyes and see that it’s dark outside. She doesn’t know for how long she was asleep, when she looks at the redhead she see her eyes focused on her.

“Ehy.. you’re awake, Doc.” Anna says with a little blush on her cheek, she’s embarrassed because when she woke up she has noticed that her doctor was next to her sleeping and it was a wonderful sight to her. 

“Anna.. how are you feeling?” Elsa tries to compose herself.

“A bit tired, what happened?” she’s just confused as the blonde.

“You had an heart failure.. I managed to make your heart start beating again, you scared us.”

“ _‘us’_?”

“Kristoff, your father and me.” She mumbles, she gives up: she can’t manage to conceal her feeling. 

For a moment Anna is quiet with her eyes still on her doctor’s. _‘She called me Anna, and said Kristoff’s name.. She didn’t call us in a formal way.. She’s too cute.’_ Then she realizes that it’s evening and Elsa’s shift should be over for long now.  The clock of her room says 9:10pm.

“I guess your shift is over.. and I didn’t find out which is your favorite pizza.” 

Elsa looks at her confused and surprised. This woman is really something, instead of being concern about her well being, her thoughts are focused on the pizza. She tries to suppress a chuckle, but fails. It’s the first time she chuckles at work and in front of someone. She’s starting to think that with Anna she’s having a lot of ‘first times’.

Anna is listening to the little chuckles coming from the blonde and thinks that those are the most adorable sounds she’s ever heard in her life.

“My favorite pizza is the vegetarian one. I love vegetables.”


	14. Chapter 14

“I guess we can’t eat some pizza now..” 

Elsa shakes sadly her head, she doesn’t want to make unhappy this younger woman in front of her. She’d like to do something but for now all she can do is to stay there with her and find out what happened.

“I am sorry Anna, but you can’t eat pizza tonight.. I don’t know what happened, your heart was doing fine, all the exams were good, so I have no clue and for now, I need to keep a close eye on you, I don’t want it happens again.” 

Anna nods slowly to her doctor. She understands the current situation: they don’t know why her heart decided to cause some troubles. She wasn’t doing anything when it all happened, she was just taking a nap and when she woke up she was in her room and next to her there was Elsa sleeping. 

Suddenly the redhead’s stomach rumbles making the blonde and her blushing together. Anna chuckles a little and runs her hand through her messy hairs while mumbling a ‘sorry’ to her doctor. Elsa’s hand rises to her mouth in order to hide a little smile of her and she starts to stand up.

“I think I could go and grab something for you to eat.”

“Oh no.. hospital food again..” Anna says without trying to suppress the smile that is showing on her face. She can’t help to think that it’s nice to see this new side of the blonde, it’s like she’s more herself now. Maybe being next to her every day helped her to be more comfortable around someone else, and honestly speaking Anna’s happy that that _‘someone’_ is her.

While Elsa is searching something to eat Anna stays still in her bed with her eyes looked at the now empty chair beside her. A part of her is happy that she can stay longer there with the amazing blonde, but the other part is pretty concerned. Why did she have a heart failure? Why now? She doesn’t want to have more problems. 

_ ‘Damn.. I thought I was doing great.’ _ She sighs to herself and waits for Elsa to come back.

The blonde doctor is walking back to Anna’s room with some food, but she’s reluctant to come in. 

She’s afraid that when her feet go through the threshold she has to assist to another episode like the one of that afternoon. It’s like the first time she’s really concerned about one of her patient, she used to follow her father’s view about the doctor-patient relationship, but now with Anna everything is different. The talk with Marshall helped her understanding that she enjoys being with the redhead and that probably she wants them to be friends. All at once her mind brings back some words of her father _‘you can’t be friend with your patient, it will be deleterious.’_ He may be right, but she has this feeling deep inside of her that her being friend to Anna isn’t deleterious at all. On the contrary, she’s starting to think that this connection that is growing between them is good. 

Elsa takes a deep breath and walks in the room greeted by a lost in thought Anna. The doctor approaches her and sits again in the same chair which is subject to Anna’s attentive gaze.

“Here, something for your rumbling stomach.” She handles her the fruit pudding and a bottle of water, but Anna seems to be still in her dreamland. “Ehy, Earth to Anna.” At that the redhead blinks her eyes and finally notice the blonde’s hands under her face with the pudding.

“Oh thanks! Sorry I was lost in thought.” She mumbles. 

“Don’t worry, just eat something now.” Elsa looks at her as she puts the spoon in her mouth and make something like a grimace.

“I guess I couldn’t eat chocolate pudding.. right?” Elsa shakes internally her head in disbelief.

“Nope, I prefer you to eat something more healthy for now, maybe tomorrow if you and your heart play nice.” Anna seems to think about her doctor’s sentence and then she extends her left her to Elsa who seems a bit confused.

“Let’s make a deal, my heart and I will be nice and you’ll give us a nice chocolate pudding.” Elsa is hesitant for a little but then takes Anna’s hand and shakes it.

“Deal.”

Now it’s 10:30pm, Anna finished her late and poor dinner and they talked for a while. Anna starts to yawn and Elsa takes that as a clue for her to leave the younger woman sleep. She starts to stand up when Anna stops her.

“Wait.. are you going?”

“Yeah, you need some rest and I think it’s time for me to go to sleep as well. After all my shift ended something like three hours ago and I think my cat is missing me.”

“Oh, do you have a cat? What’s its name? Do you have a picture?” now Anna doesn’t seem tired at all. Elsa chuckles a little and brings out from the her coat pocket her mobile phone. She searches for a photo of her cat and as soon as she finds it she handles it to her.

“Here, there she is. Her name is Etta, she was given to me by a friend of my family, Marshall, her cat bred four kittens and he asked me if I wanted one. Now she’s one and an half year old.” Anna watches the picture on the screen of Elsa’s phone. Etta is a nice white cat with some black blot, she seems healthy and loved. In the photo the cat is in Elsa’s couch playing with a red cotton ball.

“Aw, she’s so cute!” without thinking Elsa comes closer to Anna’s face so that she could watch the photo too. They are a few inches apart, none of them seems to be bothered by the other proximity.

“Yes, she is. You should see her whenever I read my books. It doesn’t matter if I’m on my couch, on my bed or the chair, she jumps in my belly or my legs and starts playing with the back of the book. Sometimes when I’m on the couch, she stays behind me on my shoulder and starts to play with the pages of the books.. You can’t even imagine how many books she ruined! But I can’t stop loving her.” 

Anna smiles at the story the blonde is telling, she can’t help but think that her doctor is a softy and isn’t a cold hearted woman. If she has to be honest with herself, she doesn’t want others to see this side of the blonde. 

Slowly she turns around but then she notices how close they are and she stops her movements. At the same time Elsa face her and they look at each other for what it looks like an eternity. Elsa is holding her breath while her eyes start to gaze every inch of Anna’s face, her freckles, her turquoise eyes that look so alive regardless the tiredness, her little cute nose, her lips which are a bit parted. She wonders what would it feels like to touch those lips and that skin. _‘What the hell I’m thinking!?’_

Meanwhile Anna is doing the same, she looks her doctor’s face. Her eyes are of an icy blue and she likes them, they are unique and beautiful. After she notices the blonde’s gaze on her own lips instinctively her own eyes go down to Elsa’s lips while she licks her lips thinking about how it would be to feel the blonde’s lips on her own.

Elsa blinks her eyes when she realizes what kind of thoughts she just had and that Anna licked quickly her lips. She gets away too much quickly that she almost falls. The redhead looks worried at her.

“Oh God! Are you okay?” Elsa composes herself and stand straight up.

“Yes, everything.. okay. I.. I should go.” Anna looks a bit sad about that but she knows that it’s the best for the two of them, after all they still need to rest and it’s getting late.

“Yeah, you’re right..” Elsa takes her laptop and starts walking out the room when she stops and faces one more time her patient.

“One last thing, I promise you that we’ll have another pizza night. I’d like you to taste my favorite pizza. Good night Anna.”

“Good night Elsa, sweet dreams.” Anna quickly realizes how she’s just called her doctor and is about to say sorry and correct herself but Elsa speaks first.

“See you tomorrow, sleep well.” The blonde doesn’t seem to be bothered by the way the redhead called her.  

Anna smiles at herself thinking about how their relationship is developing. Elsa wouldn’t let her to call the doctor by her first name, but now it happened and she wasn’t upset or offended. On the contrary it seemed that she was pleased by that. Whatever her doctor thinks about the use of her name, Anna thinks that she won’t mind if she’ll call her again _‘Elsa’_ , well, she knows that at the presence of someone else it’s best if she don’t call her like that, but when they’re alone she could. Tomorrow she’ll try again and see what will happen.

She closes her eyes and go to sleep.

Elsa comes out from her car and locks it before opens her front door’s house. As soon as she enters in her home, she smiles to herself as she hears Etta calling her from the living room. She walks to her beloved cat and pats her little head. She checks if Etta ate and then she fills her water bowl. After that she debates to herself if eating something or not, but she’s too tired for a late dinner and decides that tomorrow morning she’ll have a bigger breakfast than usual. 

Elsa walks in her bedroom and changes herself in her pajamas and goes to bed. She’s too tired to think about the day she had, the only thing she wants now is to rest and have a good night of sleep. Not long enough Etta comes in  and jumps on the bed, she reaches her owner and lays flat next to her. The blonde looks down at her cat with an eyes open and smiles.

“Night, dear Etta.”  

The next morning Elsa wake up feeling a light pressure on her belly. She groans Etta’s name and right after that she stands up and walks to the kitchen to have the biggest breakfast in her entire life.

After eating and feeding her cat she goes to work determined to find out what happened the previous day. Maybe it’s only fault of Anna’s cardiac condition. 

Once she arrives at the hospital she’s greeted by Dr. Summers telling her that he hopes she’s slept well and that he wants her to find out what caused his daughter’s heart attack. She doesn’t need him to tell her what to do, but she tries to not reply to him in a unprofessional way. Before going to Anna, she finds Kristoff in her office.

“Dr. Winters, good morning.”

“Morning, what brings you here?” she asks him confused.

“I think I know what happened yesterday..” Elsa doesn’t know if being worried, confused, alarmed or happy to hear about that sentence. She decides to sit down.

“Then tell me.” He nods and take a deep breath.

“Yesterday I didn’t go back home right after the end of my shift, I decided to stay in the hospital for a while, I noticed that you stayed too, you fell asleep in Anna’s room, but I didn’t want to wake you up. So I walked around for a while and I heard some nurses talking..” now Elsa doesn’t know if he has information about what happened to Anna, that means the heart failure, or what happened between the two of them. She’s a bit worried that he could know that Anna and she doesn’t have a ‘ _normal’_ doctor-patient relationship. 

“There was a nurse who was worried that you would have been angry at him because he made a mistake with some papers.” 

_ ‘Shit. I don’t like how this is going.’ _ She stays quiet and waits for him to tell all the story.

“He misread two papers of two different patient, one it was Anna’s and the other one was someone else. He didn’t give Anna her usual medicine, he gave her another drug but he was too scared to talk about it, knowing your reputation..”

Elsa stands up, he is a bit worried about himself now. 

“You should have called me as soon as you found out about it.” 

“I’m sorry..”

“Don’t be, it’s okay. You told me now so it’s okay, but give me his name now. I need to talk with him and with Dr. Summers.” He nods and tell her the name of the nurse.

“You know, I was worried that it was my fault she had that episode..” He looks at her confused.

“How could you think something like that? You didn’t do anything wrong.” She sighs to herself thinking about why she said that out loud, she knows she can’t say anything about the pizza night

“When one of your patient who you thought was doing great suddenly has a heart failure, then you start to think that maybe you have missed something.”

He nods at his boss understanding what she’s talking about. He hasn’t experienced a situation like that but he can imagine what it would be like to be in her shoes in that specific moment.

“Thanks Kristoff and please, do me a favor, go check on Anna.. check that that nurse isn’t around her. I want her to be safe, okay?” 

“Sure, don’t worry.” She nods at him and they exit together from her office, he goes to his cousin and she walks to her chief. 

Once she is in front of Dr. Summers’ office she knocks and waits for him to tell her to walk in. She’s angry, she wants to go to that nurse and make him pay, but she can’t do something like that. She needs to do the right thing, she doesn’t want any more drama in her life. After some seconds Kai tells her to come in and she does. 

“Dr. Winters, how can I help you?”

“I know what happened to your daughter.” He nods to her and shows her to sit down in front of his desk. He takes a deep breath and asks her to tell him everything she knows. She says exactly what Kristoff said previously. Elsa is fully aware that both her and Kai are angry with this nurse. 

“Thanks for the information, I’ll take care of the situation, from now on, you go check on my daughter and tell Dr. Bijorman that I need to talk with him later after his rounds.” She nods and walks out the office. 

Elsa’s reaching Kristoff and Anna, they’re talking about what happened the previous day.

“What the hell!?!? That bastard!!” she yells, it’s not hard to hear the angry in her voice. 

“What’s happening?!?!” Elsa runs in the room, she couldn’t hear what they were talking so she’s worried. 

“El- Doc!! Morning, sorry I’ve just found out what happened yesterday..” 

“Sorry, Dr. Winters, I asked her to not make a scene.”

Elsa is more relaxed now. “That’s okay, the chief wants to talk with you later.”

“All right, then I’ll leave you two alone.” He smiles at the women and walks out after giving a little punch on Anna’s shoulder and whispering something in her ear making her to blush. 

Once he’s out and far away from the room, Elsa comes closer to Anna and checks her IV, the redhead lets her to do for a while her job but soon enough she takes the blonde’s hand.

“It’s not your fault, you know? And don’t worry, I didn’t see that nurse since yesterday afternoon.” She says quietly to her doctor, it’s like the role are switched: it’s Elsa the one who seems to be injured.   
“Ehy, now we know that it wasn’t my heart’s fault, so I think we can eat that pizza soon, right Elsa?” 

The blonde shakes her head in disbelief and squeeze Anna’s hand.

“Not so fast, Anna. I still need to check you and make sure you’re fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ehy everyone, how are you? I hope you're liking this story.   
> The name of Elsa's cat 'Etta', for who watched Fringe is familiar, for who didn't watched the show I'll explain: Etta (for long Henrietta) was the name of a character of the show, it was played by Georgina Haig, for who watches Once Upon A Time should know who she is. Georgina Haig is palying our beloved Elsa in OUAT, so I decided to call the cat like that.
> 
> Thanks for the support and I wish you all to have a nice day :)
> 
> Be well


	15. Chapter 15

 

The nurse who confused the medicines gets fired, Kai doesn’t like the fact that one of his staff isn’t able to read correctly the prescriptions causing issues to the patients. Worthless say that his inability to work properly caused the Chief’s daughter to have some complications. After Kai found out who the other patient was, an old man, he checked his vitals. Now both the old man and Anna are doing better.

It’s the third day after the incident and since Anna’s vitals are great, she can be dismissed. In a few hours her mother Gerda will come in the hospital to pick her up. The redhead is waiting patiently in her room staying still in her bed. She wants to be back at home, she misses food which isn’t from the hospital, if she has to stay with her parents she hopes that at least her mother cooks sometimes pizza or pasta or dishes like those.

“Morning Anna, how are you feeling? Ready to go home?” Anna turns to face the source of that lovely voice, once she faces it she smiles.

“Morning to you Elsa, I’m fine and yes, I’m ready to go home. I can’t wait to eat something different.” The blonde walks closer to her and checks for the last time her medical records. She notices the look that the younger woman sends to her. After that event Elsa doesn’t let any nurses near her patient, she doesn’t want anything bad to happen to Anna, after all she doesn’t have any patients others than the redhead and she doesn’t mind to be with her all the time, of course whenever she can.

“I’ll help you to get ready for your mother.” As said she helps Anna to sit in her bed who is still wearing the ‘hospital-pajama’ as the redhead likes to call it. Elsa reaches the wardrobe and takes out the clothes for her no longer patient.

“Are you sure you can do that alone?” Elsa asks as she handles them. Anna takes her stuff and nods to her doctor.

“Okay, then I’ll be right outside the door, if you need me just call me out.” Then she walks outside and closes the door in order to give her more privacy

Anna begins to undress herself and the first thing she does is to wear her bra. She likes to stay without it, she feel free and comfortable, but she knows she needs to wear it when she isn’t at home. She wears a sweatshirt and now it’s time for the pants but she’s having some problems. She’d like to be able to dress herself alone, but having a broken leg isn’t helping her. She sighs.

“Damn…El…ehm Dr. Winters..? Could you help me..?” Immediately Elsa enters in the room.

“Having troubles, I see.” She gets closer and takes the pants. “Let see how I can help with this.” She kneels down and grabs gently the uninjured leg. The touch sends some electricity all over Anna’s body giving her goose bumps. Anna looks down at Elsa who seems pretty focused on what she’s doing. On the other side, Anna isn’t focused at all, she’s only having odd thoughts about her and her blonde doctor. Her heart starts to beat faster as Elsa’s hands keep touching her skin.

“And now, it’s your turn.” Elsa mumbles at the broken leg. Anna chuckles a little at those words. _‘Elsa is talking with my leg like it’s something alive.’_ The blonde handles the injured leg with a lot of care and after a while she manages to put on those pants on Anna’s legs.

“Good, now we need to make you stand up and fix those pants on your waist. Come on, put your hands on my shoulder.” Anna does as she’s told. She gently lays her hands on her, after that Elsa grabs her waist and helps her to stand up.

“Don’t worry I’ve got you.”

 _‘Yes, you are..’_ Anna thinks. After Elsa manages to fix the pants on her waist, she helps the redhead to sit again in her bed.

“Thanks..” the younger woman says with a little blush on her cheeks.

“No needs to thank me, it was a pleasure.” The blonde checks her clock and sighs. “So, your mother will be here soon, I’m going to find a wheelchair for you.” And she exits from the room.

“So, it’s time to leave, ready dear?” Gerda is next to her daughter. She wanted to wait for her husband, but Kai is in the OR.

Anna nods to her mother while she’s wheeling by Elsa.

“Once we’re home, I’ll make you some hot chocolate, I bet you miss it.”

“Yeah! Thanks Mom!” Elsa rolls her eyes. The trio reach Gerda’s car. Elsa is about to opens the car door when the older woman stops her. Then, the blonde helps Anna to sit comfortably in the seat. In the meantime Gerda places the luggage in the trunk, she’s giving some times alone for the two girls.

“Thanks for everything..” Anna says quietly, she doesn’t want to be heard by her mother.

“As I said, there’s no need to thank me, just take care of yourself, all right? We’ll see each other when you’ll remove the plaster cast.” The redhead smiles and squeezes her doctor’s hand.

“I know that maybe isn’t my place to ask..” Elsa is a little confused.

“Just ask, don’t worry.” Anna takes a deep breath.

“May..may I ask you your telephone number?” the blonde now is speechless, she doesn’t know what to do, it’s her patient, well she isn’t no more. Giving Anna her number maybe could be a way to be friends.

The redhead notices the silence which is now between them. She’s about to talk again when she sees Elsa takes something from her pocket. The blonde starts writing something on the piece of paper and then gives it to her.

“Just remember that when I’m at work I can’t answer you back right away, okay? And please.. don’t give it to anyone.” Anna takes the piece of paper and reads the telephone number of the blonde. She smiles and nods vigorously.

“Of course! I won’t give it to anyone. I’ll send you a text later. Thanks and it was nice meeting you.”

“It was nice for me too, but I’d have preferred we met each other in other circumstances.” After that Gerda returns to the two girls.

“All right, it’s time to leave. Thanks again Dr. Winters for taking care of my daughter. I promise you I’ll keep an eye on her.”

“It’s okay. Drive safely and have a nice day.” Anna waves to Elsa and then Gerda reaches the driver’s seat, she starts the engine and drives away.

Anna keeps looking at the piece of paper which Elsa gave her earlier. She admires her handwriting. It’s not like the other doctors’ handwriting, Elsa’s is more neat and most importantly is readable. The blonde didn’t write only the number but her name too.

Gerda watches for a moment the rearview mirror and sees her daughter gaze and smile.

“So, how is she?” she asks and chuckles at her daughter’s reaction.

Anna looks just like a deer in the middle of the road: scared and surprised.

“W-who!?”

“Dr. Winters, who else?”

“Ah..” Anna tries to keep under control her heartbeat and tries to not blush. “She’s nice, an hard worker, she loves what she does and she’s a wonderful doctor. She’s smart, polite, gentle, gorgeous-” _‘Oh shit!’_ “She’s great.” Anna is cursing herself in her mind. Her parents doesn’t know she’s lesbian, well she has never brought some guy at home, so they could have some ideas, but she has never said anything about the matter.

Gerda keeps smiling, she has a feeling that her daughter may have something for the young blonde doctor, but she doesn’t want to push anything.

“Good. Your father told me she’s called the Ice Queen and I was a little concerned you two wouldn’t get along. But I’m happy that I was wrong. Since the first time I saw her she’s seemed to be a good young woman, and if you say she is, then she is.”

Anna nods to her mother while she’s putting the piece of paper inside her pocket and she watches outside the window.

Elsa receive a call from Kristoff and she goes to him. Once she arrives, he’s in front of their chief’s office.

“Dr. Bijorman, did you call me?” he nods and opens the door of Kai’s office. Kai is seated in his chair and looks at Elsa.

“Dr. Winters, thanks for everything you’ve done for my daughter, now it’s time for you to start working again to your old cases with Dr. Bijorman.”

The two young doctors begin their rounds. Kristoff  notices something different in Elsa, she seems to be happier. He thinks it’s because she stayed for long only with Anna, whatever the reason is, he’s glad about the change, now Elsa seems more human.

“I’m happy to see that you handled well my old patients and I hope you’re ready to start learning again.”

“I honestly can’t wait to work with you again.” She looks at the surgeries board.

“It seems you won’t wait for long, we have a surgery today. Show me how good you become.” He smirks at her and nods. He’s starting to like this new Elsa.

They’re scrubbing up when Kristoff speaks up.

“Ehy, thank you for what you’ve done for my cousin.” She faces him.

“It’s my job, but I’m glad she’s fine now. I should be the one thanking you, you found out what happened to her.” She finishes to prepare herself for the operations. “Come on, let’s go.”

They enters in the OR and she lets Kristoff be in charge in this surgery. She has to admit it, she missed this room and she’s glad to be there again. The last time she was there it was Anna’s surgery, she shouldn’t even have been there. But this is her place, the operation room it’s her stage, where she can show her skills, where she can saves lives, where she knows she makes her parents proud. But there’s something she doesn’t like about Kristoff being in charge: he doesn’t put some music on. She likes to do a surgery with some classic music, it helps her focus and not be too much under pressure, but well everyone has different tastes.

The operation finishes without problems, the old lady has now her heart fixed and can play again with her grandchildren. The two doctor check on the other patients and do their paper works. According to Kristoff the worst thing being a doctor is all the bureaucracy. Elsa agrees with him, but she won’t tell him that.

At the end of the day Kristoff is talking with Mandy about their date and how it went great, when he sees Elsa he says bye to his crush and walks to his boss who’s headed in her office.

“Dr. Winters, may I talk to you for a second?” She lets him walk in her office.

“Thanks, I wanted to tell you that I’m thankful to you for letting me operate today.”

“Well, you’re my intern and I think you’re doing a great job, so there’s no need to thank me.”

“Yeah.. but it’s been a while since you did a surgery, I thought..”

“I know,  we’ll operate together, sometimes I’ll be in charge, and other times you’ll be. You need to practice. When there’ll be operation I think you aren’t prepared for, you’ll be there next to me learning.” He nods to her.

“Okay, our shifts are finished, see you tomorrow then.”

“Wait, I need to tell you something.” Kristoff is surprised and waits politely for the blonde to talk.

“It’s confidential.. I grew close to your cousin Anna during our time together. I know she’s staying at her parent’s place, but I’d like you to keep an eye on her.”

“Sure, I’ll do my best.” Kristoff smiles at himself. _‘I knew it! I hope she realizes soon she likes her, they seems to be perfect for each other.’_

“Thank you, Kristoff. Have a nice evening and get some rest.”

“You too, Elsa-” _‘Damn!’_ “Can I call you Elsa..!?” She thinks about it for a minute, she’d prefer that only Anna calls her by her name..

“That’s okay, but only when we’re alone. In front of others I’ll be Dr. Winters.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow Elsa.” He smiles and exits from the office.

After a while, she walks out too and comes back home. She’s greeted by Etta who wants some cuddles, Elsa shakes her head but sits on the couch and lets the cat to climb her legs. She starts to pat gently on her head, but she stops her movements when she hears her phone’s vibration. She reaches it in her bag and she looks at it.

_“Ehy Heart’s Doctor! It’s Anna, I think your shift is finished and I told you I’d have sent you a text. So, here it is. I hope your day went great. I’m sorry to tell you this but I prefer the chocolate I drank today than the chocolate pudding of the hospital. None offense taken, I hope! So, I wish you’ll have a nice evening.”_

Elsa finds herself smiling at the screen of her mobile phone. _‘That’s a new one..’_ She begins to respond to the redhead’s text.

_“Hi Anna, Heart’s Doctor, uh? My day went well, thanks for your concern. Don’t worry, you didn’t offend me, but you hurt Etta’s feeling, I was giving her some cuddles when she was startled by your text. Have a nice evening you too.  
Elsa”_

She starts again to pats Etta’s head when she quickly receive another text.

_‘Oh, I’m sorry.. Send her my apologies please.”_

Elsa chuckles at the messages and does as said. Suddenly she decides to do something she usually doesn’t do. She starts her camera app of her phone and takes a picture of Etta in her legs and sends it to Anna.

_‘She accepts your apologies. Ah, I was thinking to eat some pizza this evening, but I’ll eat that when we’ll have our pizza night.’_

Anna reads one more time the blonde’s message. She sent her a picture of her cat and her words makes Anna blush. _‘She still wants to have with me the pizza night..’_

On the other side Elsa is thinking about what she did. _‘I keep doing this things with her, keep being different. She’s changing me and I’m not upset about it.’_


	16. Chapter 16

Elsa and Kristoff are spending a lot of time together in the past few weeks, since they come back to their daily routine and when they’re alone he tells her how Anna is doing. She’s happy to know that the redhead is getting better and that her parents are taking a good care of her, well since her father is the chief of an hospital it’s obvious that she is treated well.

In a few days she’ll be back here at the hospital to free her leg from the _‘white damn trap’_ , as Anna likes to call it. She doesn’t enjoy staying still all day, the only thing she does is to study, watch movies and play videogames. She needs to go around, to start jogging again. She needs her time for sport. Elsa knows those things because they keep sending messages once the blonde is home after work.

“Friday Anna removes the plaster cast, I was thinking that maybe we could do something special.” Kristoff says while he’s seated in the little couch in Elsa’s office. She’s working at her laptop, today is a quiet day and it isn’t always a good thing. Since they started to working together again, they ended up to get along better. Elsa knows she isn’t great in making friends, but things changed some days ago.

_It’s the end of the shift for the two young doctors, the woman wanted to go directly at home but Kristoff managed to persuade her to go out for a drink._

_“So, I know you’re not great with people, but today wasn’t  a good day and I just want to help you to distract a bit yourself.” That morning in the ER came patients from a car accident. They were a family with two children, a boy and a girl. Elsa had to operate on the younger child, the boy, but he didn’t make it. Like his sister and his mother, only the father survived. Even if he’s not in the best conditions._

_“Yeah, well, things like this happens.” She accepted her intern’s invitation for an unknown reason. Maybe she doesn’t want to stay alone, that case reminded her about the time when her parents died._

_“Elsa, what’s going on? It’s not like the first time you lose some patients.” He’s truly concerned. It’s odd to see her becoming like a shell again. He doesn’t want her to do so._

_She sighs and thinks about telling him or not about her parents. She orders something to drink, nothing alcoholic, because she has to drive back home._

_“They reminded me about my parents.” He looks at her confused, he doesn’t know anything about her family. Hell, he doesn’t know almost nothing in general about his boss, but he understands that this is a delicate issue and decides to wait for her to talk about it._

_“They died in a plane crash when I was 15 years old. My parents were going to a convention, I don’t know if you know about it, but they were great surgeons. My father, Joseph, was a neurosurgeon and my mother Katherine was just like me a cardiac surgeon. They should have been gone for few days but instead..” she tries to fight back some tears, she doesn’t want to let him see her weakness, but then she feels an hand in her back._

_“I’m so sorry..” Kristoff rubs her back in order to comfort her a little, it’s the first time they’re this ‘close’ and he’s a bit afraid she’ll shout at him, so he acts like he would do if it was a wild animal. She lets some tears to fall and cover her face with her hand._

_“It’s been a long time.. but it’s like it was yesterday.” He nods to her remembering the day at the lake where Anna almost died in front of him and his little brother._

_“I think I can understand a little.. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night afraid that Anna’s dead. She told you the story of the lake, right?” She nods to him._

_“Well, whenever I see her pills, or it’s snowing I think about that day.” They share a moment of total silence and then Elsa speaks again._

_“I’ve never told anyone about my parents.. the only person who knows about them is Marshall, I think he’s the closest friend I have.” She mumbles. Kristoff looks surprise to hear that his boss has a friend._

_“I don’ know if it’s my place to say it or not, but I think that you need more friends in your life, and I’d be honored to be one of them..” he says quietly, she’s listening to him and thinks about what he’s just said._

_‘I need more friends..’_   _she looks at him and sighs. Her mind goes to the redhead they both know._

_“I think you’re right. But as you said earlier, I’m not great with people.” He smiles at her and takes away his hand from her back._

_“But you just let me in, partially. You told me something you’ve never told anyone. This is a start, don’t you think?” He extends his hand to her._

_“So, would you like to try to be friend with me?” Her eyes go down to his hand in front of her. She stays quiet for a moment and then she grabs his hand._

_“I’d like to.”_

“What did you have in mind?” She replies at him without leaving her eyes from the screen.

“Once our shift ends, we could go to my place and eat a pizza all three together.” Elsa won’t admit him that she was thinking about something like that, even if she wanted to eat alone a pizza with Anna.

“It’s a nice idea, you live near the hospital and I keep thinking that your car isn’t that safe, so I could pick you up in the morning or you come here with your uncle or I don’t know, and I’ll drive us at your place.” She sends him a glare which he understands immediately. He sighs ad smiles at himself.

“You know I won’t change that car, right?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” She sighs and closes her laptop. She looks at her intern and sees a book in his hands. “What’s that?”

He shows it to her and tries to hide a blush in his cheeks.

“It’s a gift from Mandy..” she looks the title and hums. The pediatric nurse and him are dating and their relationship is developing well, sometimes he tells Elsa how things are going and she listens to him without saying anything, mostly because she doesn’t know what to say. She’s not that experienced in that field.

The rest of the working day ends without surgeries or emergencies and the two doctors return to their home.

Elsa is watching a tv-show when her doorbell rings. She stands up and walks to her front door and she recognizes the person looking through the peephole.

“Come in, how are you?” She smiles at Marshall who’s walking in.

“Everything’s alright, and you?” They reaches the living room and she shows him to sit down while she goes to bring some glasses. Etta is resting on the carpet placed in the middle of the living room, when she sniffs a familiar smell she stands up and walks to the man and starts to rub against his legs. She can feel the smell of her mother. He smiles at the kitten and he’s pleased to see how well she’s growing up.

Elsa returns from the kitchen and handles him the glass.

“I’m fine, it’s nice to see you here.”

“I wanted to see how you were doing. I’m glad that everything is fine. So, the last time we talked you told me you got a new friend.” She sits next to him and takes Etta in her arms.

“Yes, he’s my intern, Kristoff.” He thinks he knows that name. Then the realization hits him.

“Isn’t the cousin of that girl? The one who was your patient?” She stays still and stops caressing Etta’s head.

“Yes..”

“Tell me, how is it doing with her?” He doesn’t even try to hide his curiosity. She stays quiet for a moment and then starts to speak.

“I give her my telephone number, and we’re sending messages to each others. So I guess, it’s doing fine.. This Friday she’ll be at the hospital to remove the plaster cast and Kristoff, her and I will eat something together.” She tries to fight back a smile at the thought of seeing Anna again.

“That’s great! I hope one day I’ll meet this girl. I don’t even know her name.” He smiles at his friend.

“It’s Anna.” She likes how her name sounds. _“I can’t wait to see her again..”_   Marshall manages to hear those words but decides to pretend he doesn’t.

He stays for a little longer there and then goes away telling Elsa that he hopes to hear more about this girl.

__

It’s the night for Friday and Elsa is in her bed unable to fall asleep. She takes her phone and looks at the time. _3:05am_

“Damn..” She sighs. She wants to sleep, but the sleep seems doesn’t want her. She decides to look at the messages from Anna. Every time she reads them she finds herself smiling like an idiot. She opens the last message from the redhead.

 _“Ah, one last thing. I can’t wait to see you again tomorrow. I miss you. Good night and sweet dreams, Heart’s Doc.”_ She smiles at the nickname and she is surprised to notice how her heart starts beating faster. She didn’t answer at that message, because she would have written that she misses her too. More than once she thought to go to her place, but every time decides to not do that because it’s her Chief house and daughter. Before taking away her phone she looks at the photo of the redhead, where she’s smiling and seems so happy. Elsa can’t help to think how cute she is and how much she’d like to see that happiness everyday of her life. At that thought she blinks her eyes and takes away her phone and plunges her head into the pillow.

“Elsa, go to sleep, come on.” She says to herself and then closes her eyes letting the darkness surrounding her.

She’s in her car outside Kristoff’s house, who is locking his front door. As the younger man enters in her car he looks around himself and seems fascinated.

“Wow Elsa, you have a nice car!”

“Thanks, she’s my baby.” She caress the steering wheel, she loves her car which is a Golf GTI. Her family used to have only German cars, like BMW or Volkswagen, so it’s like a tradition having a car of one of those brands. Kristoff seems a bit surprised by the reaction of his boss. _‘Did I hear correctly? Has she called her car ‘baby’..?’_

Once they arrived at the hospital Elsa locks her car and sees Dr. Summers.

“Good morning doctors.” He smiles at them and walks away.

Kristoff and her starts their working day as usual. After the rounds they check one more time the surgeries board and Elsa plans who does which operations in charge.

“So, Anna will be here at 4pm, we end our shift at 6pm, we need Anna to stay here for those two hours, what do you think if she watches the last operation? It lasts an hour and an half.” Elsa thinks about it for a moment.

“It’s the one I’ll do. It’s okay for me.”

The surgery Kristoff has to do goes fine without any kind of complications, he’s improving very well and Elsa is proud of him. They’re walking when Elsa hear her phone buzzes. She takes it out from her pocket and there’s a message from her favorite redhead.

 _“Knock knock!”_ Elsa is a bit confused but decides to play along.

_“Who’s there?”_

“A redhead who wants to surprise you two!” Elsa turns around to face the familiar voice and sees Anna in front of them. Kristoff hugs her cousin, but Elsa doesn’t do anything, she can’t hug her, even if she wants so badly to do so.

“Hi Anna, how are you? Ready to remove that thing?” He smiles at her.

“Yep, can’t wait! So, Doc. How about we take it off, like..now?” Elsa nods at her and fight back a smile.

“Sure, let’s go. Kristoff, please go and prepare the patient of B-38 for her operation.”

The two girls goes to a room where they can have more privacy and do what they’re there to do. Anna is seated in a bed and Elsa is taking of the plaster cast. Once she finishes she takes a look at the leg and checks how it healed.

“Good, it looks fine.” She gently pats her leg and then let her fix her pants. Once she’s done the redhead stays still there in the bed.

“So, how are you, Elsa?” She smiles.

“I’m fine, I’m glad to see you again.” She tries to fight the urge to say her how much she missed her.

“I missed you, but I didn’t miss the hospital!” at that Elsa can’t help but chuckle.

“Yeah, I can imagine it. I missed you too.” She blinks at her confession, she doesn’t want to say that but well, what’s done, it’s done. She tries to not blush but fails. Anna takes her hand and rubs the back of it.

“I’d like to stay longer..” Elsa can hear the unspoken but and she stops her.

“Would you like to watch me operate?” Anna stays with her mouth open and can’t say a word.

“Then.. Kristoff and I were thinking about eating something all together. Our shift ends at 6pm, the surgery lasts an hour and an half.” The blonde looks at her hopefully in a positive answer.

“I’d love to see you do what you love the most.” The redhead smiles at her and points at her crutches, the doctor stands up to reach them and handle to the younger woman.

Kristoff is waiting his boss in front of the door of the OR and he sees his cousin with Elsa, he smiles at them.

“Go and do your best, Heart’s Doc.” She whispers at her, waves at Kristoff and then goes to the room where she can watch the surgery.

She’s scrubbing up and notices the other doctor at her side who grins at her.

“What?”

“You look happier when Anna is with you.” She stops her movements and feel warm at her cheeks.

“Yeah, well.. she is special.” She’s glad that she’s wearing the mask so that it can hide her little smile and blush. She enters the room and looks up at the glass where she can see Anna smiling at her, then she focuses her attention on the patient and her team.

“Okay people, let’s do this.”


	17. Chapter 17

The surgery finishes in time for Elsa and Kristoff to wash their hands and prepare themselves to end their shift. While the two doctors are in the locker room, Anna is waiting for them in the waiting room where there are nice and comfortable couches. She can’t help but think that her father, her cousin and her doctor have an amazing job, they save life day and night, they are always ready for something bad to happen, they never let their guard down. Sometimes the redhead has the feeling that the life of a surgeon is a bit lonely and under a lot of pressure, you have a life of a living human being under your hands and you can’t distract yourself when you’re in the OR. Plus, you are always studying. Thinking about this makes her more determined  to help those two young doctor to have a life outside the hospital and to have less pressure on their shoulder, especially those of Elsa. Anna is proud of those little progress she made, the blonde older woman is more _‘human’_ now and every day they spend sending messages to each other she likes her always more.

Once Kristoff and Elsa finish to change their clothes they walk to Anna and leave the hospital all together. They’re approaching to Elsa’s car when the redhead stops her movement. Her cousin turns his face and sees her frozen in place and arched an eyebrow.

“Anna? What’s up?” at the question the older woman looks the cousins behind her.

“That’s your car!?” She point at the Golf GTI. Elsa looks at her with a mix of confusion and amused by the redhead’s reaction.

“Yep,” Anna stays quiet while the blonde opens her car and let them in. Once they’re all seated, they stay silent for a moment. “I hope you’ll like her. Put on the seatbelt guys.” She warns them and after checking they did what she said, she starts the engine. Elsa is smiling in her mind, she loves to drive and enjoys a lot the sound of her car’s motor. It’s like a child to her, she keeps it clean, in perfect condition. They arrive at Kristoff’s house in about 10minutes and the blonde driver doesn’t understand how it can be possible that he’s almost always late for work. He needs to change that car.

“Here we are!” Kristoff says happily. He exits from the car and slams the door making Elsa flinch. Anna notices her face since she’s still seated.

“Everything okay?” She asks truly concerned.

“It’s okay.” She deadpans.

“It doesn’t seem..” Elsa sighs for a moment.

“I don’t like people who slams her door.” Anna is a bit confused and she’s about to explain herself when the blonde speaks again. “I care about this car, she means a lot to me, that’s why for me, the car is not a ‘it’ but a ‘she’.” The redhead tries to understand and nods her head, when she exits from the vehicle, she doesn’t slam the door, instead she closes it carefully, making Elsa glad for the action. The owner exits too and locks it.

Kristoff opens his home’s door and let the girls in. They look around and the other doctor is surprised to see that the young man keeps his house clean, she doesn’t know why but she has this odd thought that he lived in something like a stable.

“Feel like you’re home, girls.” He smiles at them and walks in the kitchen to take some glasses and brochures of some pizzeria. They look at him and then at the pieces of paper in his hands.

“So, chose which pizza you want and later I’ll make the order.” He handles the brochures. “In the meantime, would you like something to drink?” Anna smirks.

“What about some beer?” the redhead proposes, Kristoff doesn’t mind to drink alcoholics, he doesn’t have to drive later and he has something in his mind.

“For me no, thanks. I have to drive back, so I’d like to not drink anything with alcohol. But I’d appreciate some water.” Elsa says and Anna’s enthusiasm goes down without a second thought. The younger women really wanted to see her trying to loosen up a bit. The guy look at his boss.

“If you want I have some cola too.” He suggests and Elsa thinks about it for a moment then nods at him. He leaves the girls alone again so he can go to the fridge and grabs the drinks. Anna sits on the couch in the living room and looks the list of pizzas, the blonde does the same, she slowly takes a seat close to the redhead but far enough for them to have a bit of room between them. Both of the girls know which type they’ll get, they look at the brochures only to waste some time. There’s a bit of awkward silence in the couch, Anna seems nervous and embarrassed, she doesn’t really understand why because it’s not the first time they’re alone, but it’s a bit strange not being in the hospital’s room in the presence of the blonde. She finds herself stealing some glances from Elsa and when Anna notices they’re doing the same things she smiles.

Elsa wants to say something but doesn’t know what, so she just looks at the redhead next to her, every time her eyes go to her they stay a little bit longer enjoying the view. When the blonde sees that little cute and a nervous smile she can’t help but blush a little, she loves that smile, she doesn’t want to admit she likes the redhead but deep inside of her she knows that her feeling are getting stronger every day.

“I’m glad we are here now.” Anna says.

“Me too. I promised you another pizza evening even if I’m sorry that we aren’t alone..” She whispers the final words.

“Well, maybe the next time.” She assures the blonde and her smile doesn’t fade away. After a while Kristoff comes back in the living room and Anna takes her beer, while Elsa thanks the guy for the coke.

“So did you decide?” He smiles at them and they nod.

“A Four Season for me!” the redhead exclaims happily. He shakes his head.

“What a surprise..” He says sarcastically and then looks at Elsa to know her decision.

“I’ll take a Vegetarian.” She admits politely. He writes the orders on the paper.

“So, you want to eat right away or we wait?”

“We could pick up a movie and then watch it while we eating! What do you think Elsa?” The two are looking at the blonde woman now waiting for her answer. Usually Elsa when eats she doesn’t look TV or a movie, she just eat and have a conversation, if she’s in company. But lately she’s experiencing new stuff, so even if she’s a bit reluctant she’s willing to do something different this time.

“That’s okay for me.” The two cousins smiles at her and nods simultaneously.

They all look for a movie to watch and they chose to see Guardians of Galaxy, Anna insisted on seeing it because she loves Groot. Kristoff calls to order the pizzas, the redhead and Elsa are preparing the table. The young man has the dinner and the living room together so the table is placed in a way that is possible to see the TV without problems. The movie is ready to start and the only thing that is missing is the dinner, but soon enough the doorbell rings and the man of the house goes to take the pizzas and gives them to the girls after paying the delivery boy. They sit at the table and the movie starts.

During the dinner Kristoff can’t help but look at the two girls in front of him and notices how they steal glances from each others. He tries to fight back some smiles but he fails and when Anna notices them he says that it’s the movie who makes him smile because it’s funny. He’s already watched it several time and he doesn’t mind to not focus his attention on it, he prefers to watch how the girls act with each others, he wants to see and know how their relationship will develop.

On the other side Elsa keeps thinking about how everything is changing in her life, she has friends now, or at least someone who’s like a friend. She’s really enjoying this time with the two cousins, even if she has to admit that all of her attention is on the redhead, it’s like she’s ignoring Kristoff, but she doesn’t mean to do it.

Anna tries to focus on the movie but she keeps glancing at her doctor, it’s like her eyes are telling her _‘Anna, the movie doesn’t matter, Elsa matters.’_

“Aw.. I love Groot!” Anna exclaims when the big humanoid tree says for the hundredth time ‘I am Groot.’.

“I prefer Rocket.” Kristoff answers-back, while Elsa keeps her thoughts in her mind without sharing them.

Before the movie started Elsa admitted that she never saw a movie of Marvel and she was interested in seeing one.

“So are you enjoying it?” Anna whispers, trying to not bother her cousin who’s always focused in this part of the movie, the final big battle.

“Yeah, it’s interesting and even funny sometimes.” She admits making Anna smiles.

“I knew it! You need to see more movie from Marvel, we can watch some together sometimes.” She says without thinking. _‘Oh shit.. I keep assuming she would be willing to stay with me outside the hospital..’_

“I’d like that.” The blonde replies with a little blush covered by the lack of light in the room. _‘If I could, I’d stay with her every day and night..’_

The movie ends and when Kristoff is about to turn it off Anna stops him.

“Wait! She needs to see that part!” the song _I want your back_ starts in the background in the movie and there’s a little Groot who’s dancing. Elsa looks at the screen and can’t help but chuckle.

“Aw he’s so cute.” She mumbles at herself, but the other two are able to listen at her.

“Yep, he is.” The redhead agrees. After that little cute dancing scene Kristoff turns the TV off.

“So, what do we do now?” He asks, Elsa and Anna looks at each others. Anna looks at the console and smirks. Her cousin has several games and she has something in mind.

“We could play with your play station 3.”

“You know that I have only two controllers, right?” He arches his eyebrow. She nods.

“Yeah I know, we’ll play in turn, but I don’t know if Elsa’s ever played.” She looks at the blond.

“Well, I have a PS3 at my house, so.. who wants to go first?” She smirks, this is the first time she smirks in front of them and they are a bit surprised at the action, Anna is the first to recover herself.

“Let’s see what you can do.” The redhead won’t admit that she loves this side of the blonde, the challenging one. They start Resistance 2 and starts to play. Since the beginning Elsa doesn’t want to go easy on Anna. She finds her every time and manage to kill her. Kristoff has put something to divide the screen, so they can’t see where the other player is.

“Ah found you!” Anna shouts. Elsa bites her lower lips and tries to fight for her character’s life, but she loses.

“No!” She exclaims defeated.

“Yeah! I killed you!” Anna puts her hands up in victory. Kristoff can’t suppress a laugh.

“Dear cousin, even if you defeated her, you didn’t win the game, she’s the winner. I’m sorry” With that he kills her mood and now she sends him an intimidating look. He raises his hands in a defensive way. “Sorry, sorry!”

Elsa looks at the cousins and keeps thinking about how nice would it be to have a family like that. She doesn’t have a real connection to her relatives, sometimes she receives a call from her cousin Rapunzel, but she sees her only at Christmas or Easter when all of her relatives decide to be together for the festivities. Before her parents’ death she went more often to them but then everything changed, she closed herself and didn’t visit them a lot. Only when needed. Maybe a reason of that decision is because it’s hard for her to see the rest of her family. She sighs internally, being in this situation, seeing how much love there can be between people, she can’t help but think about her parents, but she wants to shake those thoughts away because this is supposed to be a nice evening with friends.

The evening goes on nicely between beers for the cousins and different games, such as Need for Speed, Killzone and even Fifa. After a while Elsa notices that it’s late and looks at the other two beside her.

“Ehy guys, it’s getting late.. I think it’s time to go.” She says standing up from her seat on the couch. “Anna you’re a bit drunk, you’ll stay here tonight or I’ll bring you home?” the blonde says quietly coming closer to her.

“Oh, yeah Heart’s Doc, bring me to my house, pleeease!” Anna giggles, Elsa rolls her eyes and helps her to stand up.

“Kristoff, it was a really nice evening, thanks. Good night and see you at work.”

“Bring her home sound and safe.” Kristoff says trying to sound mature. His boss nods and exits from the house after taking the redhead and her stuff. The boy looks at them from the window and smirks at himself.

“Nice job Kristoff. She’s bringing her home.” He mumbles at himself. “Okay, I’m drunk enough to speak alone.. it’s time for bed!”

Elsa helps Anna to sit in her car and after the blonde assures that both of them have the seatbelts on, she starts the engine. She tries to focus on the road and to the indication the redhead says, but she’s a bit distracted by the hand of her passenger which is on her own in the gear shift. Jolts of electricity are sent by the touch of the other girl. Once they arrived at her parents’ house, they stay still for a moment.

“Thanks Elsa dear!” Anna turns to face her and she smiles. “I really liked our evening.” Her hand takes Elsa’s and squeezes it. “I really hope we could have another one soon, maybe alone.” She blushes a little.

“Yeah, I’d like that. I liked being with you today, it’s refreshing. It’s nice having you around and I can’t wait to go out soon.” She replies and at that Anna’s face becomes even more red than before. Elsa is looking into her turquoise eyes and is lost in them. She doesn’t know what is that feeling she’s experiencing right now, the same one that is killing the redhead inside.

 _‘Now or never.’_ She leans forward and gently brushes her lips on the blonde’s cheek.

“Thanks for the drive, good night Elsa.” She says before exits from the car and closes the door, leaving the blonde alone, frozen in her driver seat with an hand on her kissed cheek.


	18. Chapter 18

Anna enters in her house trying to not make a sound in case her parents are sleeping. She walks slowly in the kitchen to drink some water, once the glass is full, before to bring it to her mouth her fingers touch gently her lips. _‘I’ve just kissed Elsa.. well it was only a kiss on the cheek, but still..’_ Her heart keeps to beat fast since she decided to make that move on her favorite blonde. She can feel her cheeks warmer only at the memory of what happened some moments earlier. She shakes her head and drinks from the glass. Then she places it on the counter and starts to go to her room when she stops finding her mother in front of her in her pajama.

“Hi Anna, you came back..” She says sleepily but soon she sends the tiredness away so she can talk with her daughter for a bit.

“Yeah, I hope I didn’t wake you up..” She shakes her head

“No darling, I was watching a movie and fell asleep, but I didn’t wake up because of you, so..how did it go? You were with Kristoff and..?” Anna before going to eat with her friends sent a message to her mother in order to warn her she might be late that evening, but within the message she only mentioned her cousin.

“There was Elsa too.” She says quietly, she doesn’t want her father to hear them.

“Elsa? Do you mean Dr. Winters?” Her daughter nods and Gerda smiles. “Did you enjoy yourself? What did you do?” She sits on the chair next the little table in the kitchen where she usually prepare meals. Anna follows her mother’s action and sits as well.

“We ate some pizza and played with Kristoff’s Play Station. It was a really nice evening, we had a great time and I think everyone enjoyed it. We laughed a lot, mostly because Kristoff decided to drink a bit too much and when he’s drunk he’s kind of clumsy and thinks he’s funny. Sometimes he is, but other times..” The young woman can’t help but smile at the memory.

“It’s nice to know that the three of you had a pleasant evening. So you are all friends?” She asks curiously. Anna hesitates for a moment. Her mother just asked a simple questions, but still she can’t help but feel a bit nervous talking about the blonde with her. Her parents only see her like her doctor, nothing more, so it could be odd for them to hear or suspect that her daughter could like her.

“Yeah, something like that. Elsa is new here, so we try to help her to get used to this place and it’s nice spending some times with her. Those two blondes are getting along quiet well, you know? I’m glad to know that they’re becoming friends. She’s a kind person and deserves to be surround with people who doesn’t think bad about her. I know about the rumors in the hospital, that’s unfair.. she’s such a good person and a brilliant doctor.” She doesn’t need to say those words but she can’t help herself to open herself to her mother. Gerda listens carefully to her daughter. “When you start to know her you can’t help but like her, she’s different.. a good different.” She murmurs those last words more to herself than to the older woman even if she realizes that she could have been able to hear her. She knows that she has to be careful, but again.. she can’t help it. When the redhead talks with her mother there’s always something that tells her to not worry, that she can tell her everything she wants to, that she’s there for her no matter what. Nevertheless she’s afraid to deal with the all ‘coming out’ issue. She wants to and sooner or later she will tell her parents everything, but not right now. She still needs a bit of time, she can’t know how they could react.

Gerda stays silent for a while thinking about what her daughter just said. She has a feeling that Anna likes this woman, the way her eyes light up when she talks about her, her daughter wants the woman to be happy.

“You’re right, she seems to be different, special.” Gerda remembers some stuff regarding the past of the blonde doctor that her husband has told his wife when he hired her some months ago. “As I told you when we went out the hospital, since the first time I saw her I knew she wasn’t like everyone keeps saying, she doesn’t seem an Ice Queen. So, stay with her. Your cousin and you let her feel like here is her home.” The older woman places an hand on her daughter’s shoulder, she won’t tell her now but she truly supports her, she loves Anna and if she likes this Elsa, she’s more than happy to be there for her whenever she would need someone to talk with.

“Come on, let’s go to sleep, it’s getting late.” Gerda speaks first and stars to stand up. Anna follows her right away.

“Thanks mom..” Gerda sends her a questioning glare.

“For what, dear?”

“For listening..” They arrive in front of Anna’s bedroom. “Good night mom.” The redhead says before opening her door.

“Sleep well, see you in the morning.” She gives her a kiss on the forehead just in the same way when Anna was little.

The young woman enters in her bedroom and sighs when she sits on the edge of her bed and places away the crutches. Even if the plaster cast is no longer on her leg, she has to keep using them for a bit longer. She lays down on the mattress and stares at the ceiling for a long moment thinking about everything and nothing. She really enjoyed the evening, but she’d like it to last longer. She doesn’t have the energy and will to change her clothes, so she covers herself with the sheets and closes her eyes waiting for the sleep to come to her.

At the same time Elsa is on her bed with Etta. She’s caressing her little cute head and she purrs.

“Oh Etta.. tonight happened something strange..” the said cat doesn’t move, she just enjoy the little caresses her owner is giving her. The free hand of the blonde goes back to  her cheek, her fingers slowly brushes her pale skin.

“After a long time, someone kissed me. Gently. It was nice..” she sighs. She hasn’t had a lot of relationship, well she had only two. Nothing serious, the first one was when she was 16 years old and the other one isn’t right to define it as “relationship” since was the one with Hans. She hates to remember those moments, but she can’t help her mind to remind her the kind of “kisses” the man gave her. Since then she was never kissed again, well besides the usual kisses between relatives, but those doesn’t count. The one Anna gave her some time ago, it was different. It was kind, gently and Elsa was able to feel the emotions the redhead was feeling.

“It was something.. special. It was only on my cheek, but it gave me sparks, you know?” She says while turning her head towards her kitty. Etta lifts her head only to give her a curious look.

“Oh, but what am I saying...? you’re a cat.. I don’t think you could understand completely what I’m saying.” She goes down to kiss her cat’s head and she keeps purring. Then when the blonde decides it’s time for sleep Etta moves next her owner. Both of their eyes are now close, and the doctor is waiting patiently to fall asleep, but her mind keeps sending her images of the redhead’s smile, her voice and the time they spent together.

_“Elsa, are you ready?” Marshall asks to the blonde who is in her room changing her clothes. It’s her graduation day. Marshall is her legal tutor since her parents died. She’s waiting to receive her degree in Medicine. She specialized in cardiology, she remembers how her father wanted her to be a neurosurgeon but she just doesn’t feel the connection with that field. She prefers dealing with hearts. She doesn’t know why but she always had this odd love towards the work of her mother. The brain is important, but she believes the heart has almost the same importance as the other organ. Plus, she’s always found neurology a bit boring._

_“Yeah, I’m ready.” She exits from the locker room and walks to her only true friend. He smiles at her, even if she’s wearing the usual dress for this kind of ceremony, he still thinks she’s beautiful._

_“Your parents would have been proud of you, you know that right?” He knows that Elsa lives her days with only a thought in mind: making her parents proud._

_“Thanks, Marshall.” She smiles and they reach the other students._

_Once the ceremony ends the two of them go somewhere to celebrate, they arrive at an Italian restaurant. They walk in and as soon as Elsa’s feet crossed the threshold she hears voices shouting._

_“Congratulations Elsa!” All her relatives are there for her. It isn’t a festivity so for the blonde woman is odd to see they there, but she can’t deny she’s glad they come over._

_“Thanks guys.” She speaks up after they finish to cheering her up and clap their hands. They eat all together and talk with each other, even if Elsa doesn’t speak a lot. After a while her brunette cousin walks to her._

_“Ehy Elsa, congrats. I’m happy for you.” She says extending her arms. She knows that the blonde doesn’t love the touching but she knows that with her it’s different, so the other young woman smiles and hugs her._

_“Thanks Punzy.” Rapunzel looks at her and gives her a pat on her shoulder._

_“So, cardiology, eh? You’ll find a way to fix a broken heart, then?” the brunette speaks up._

_“We are not children anymore.” She chuckles remembering the days when they were only little girls reading at fairy tales and thinking that everything was possible. But when Elsa’s parents died, they stopped thinking about those kind of stuff, even if the brunette kept thinking that there could have a way to rebuilt the blonde’s broken heart._

_“Yeah, we aren’t anymore. That’s kind of sad.” She sighs. “The thing you know the most is how a heart works.. maybe you’ll find a way to heal.” She says placing an hand on her cousin’s chest._

_“Yeah, maybe.” She murmurs at herself._

_“True love is the key!” Rapunzel exclaims and at that Elsa shakes her head punching  her arm without harming her and after that they start laughing._

Elsa wakes up some minutes before the alarms. She’s a bit confused about the dream she just had. _‘Why I dreamed that day?’_ she stands up and walks to the bathroom to wash her face. After she cleaned herself up she checks on Etta, she fill with cat’s food her bowl and walks in the kitchen to prepare some breakfast.

Once her morning routine is finished she takes her car keys and checks on her phone before going in the car. She finds two unread messages: one from Anna and one from Rapunzel. _‘Oh.. now I understand why I dreamed of her.’_

 _“Ehy cousin dear! How are you? In a few days I’ll be in town, do you remember Flynn? He comes too. So, I’ll send you a message with the details. I miss you. Take care, kisses. Punzy.”_ She opens the other message in which she’s more interested in, but this doesn’t mean she doesn’t care for her cousin. She notices the time of the text and realizes it was only a few minutes ago. It’s unusual to receive a SMS from the redhead this early in the morning, she likes to sleep a lot whenever she can.

 _“Morning Heart’s Doc. I hope you’ve slept well. I wanted to thank you again for the ride of yesterday. Have a nice day at work!”_ She can’t help but smile at that, even if from outsiders’ eyes there’s nothing that really deserves a smile for. The blonde is about to reply at it when her phone buzzes in her hands.

 _“P.S. I can’t wait to spend more time together. A kiss for my favorite Heart’s Doc.”_  At that Elsa’s cheek starts to heat up and she can feel her body gets warmer every seconds that pass. She press the reply button and starts typing.

 _“Good morning to you, Anna. It’s nice and at the same time odd to hear from you this early. I’ve slept well, thanks to you. Next time we’ll eat pizza or something else alone, I do own you a pizza evening. Be well, dear.”_ After sending the message, she opens her car and drives to work.

Anna is still in her bed when she hears her phone rings, she reaches it and looks at the text Elsa sent her. She can’t help but fell like a crushed teenager girl. The redhead is reconsidering to return to sleep again, since she woke up this early only to give the blonde a good morning, but now she’s having something in mind. She sits up and grabs the crutches and exits from her room. After a brief stop at the bathroom she goes to the kitchen where there’s her mother preparing some breakfast.

“Oh, Anna dear, you woke up early.” Gerda is surprised to see her daughter up at this time.

“Yeah, well.. I couldn’t fall asleep again.” She lies. “Ehy, would you like to bake some cookies with me?” She casually asks.

The older woman looks at her for a moment with her eyebrow arched.

“What’s the occasion?”

“Oh.. you know.. I wanted to bring something for Kristoff and Elsa at work.. just for thanking them for yesterday evening.” She tries to keep her face neutral as possible, she wants to bake mostly for the woman, but it could be suspicious for her mother.

“Okay, then after you eat something we’ll make some nice cookies.” She smiles at her keeping her thoughts for herself. She knows her daughter and can easily understand when she’s having a secret and Gerda is pretty sure the blonde doctor with the snowflakes on her cap is involved. She’s never told Anna so, but she knows she’s lesbian. Since her first crush on her schoolmate, she doesn’t remember the name but she can’t ever forget how much her daughter tried to cover her feelings for the girl. When her parents tried to find out why she was acting so strangely she came up with a fake crush for a boy, but Gerda knew who the ‘boy’ was. She doesn’t care if Anna is lesbian or straight, she only wants her to be happy and whenever she’s ready to come out, she’ll be there.


	19. Chapter 19

The two young blonde doctor are checking the x-ray of a patient in trauma 2. Today their shift is in the ER and again, they have another case of car accident in their hands.

“People need to be more careful when they drive. Never heard of seatbelt?” Kristoff blurts out while he’s watching at the grand mass of blood in this man’s chest. A fragment of the broken ribs perforated the left lung and the heartbeat isn’t helping the situation since the organ is so close to that piece of bone. Just a slight move of the patient could engender a tragedy.

“We need to act quickly if we want to save him.” Elsa says taking the x-ray.

“What a way to start the morning, uh?” her intern walks towards the door. They’re heading to their patient to take him to the OR. When this man arrived with the ambulance it wasn’t in such a bad state, the internal bleeding and fractures couldn’t be seen from the outside, the only signs they had were some cuts, bruises and a broken leg and arm. The nurses take the patient to the OR and wait for the surgeons to come.

Kristoff is leading the operation and according to Elsa he’s doing a good job.

“The fragment is gone, but.. There’s blood everywhere.. I don’t know from where it’s coming!” The young man is frustrated. He want to find the other source of the bleeding, even if he managed to stop up the little holes caused by that piece of rib.

“Kristoff, keep calm. Take a deep breath and try to focus. You’ll find a way.” She tells him in a resolute tone, but at the same times she manages to send him some tranquility. He does as told and for a brief moment he stops his movements but soon enough he finds the other hole from where the blood is coming and fixes it. Taking advantage of the mask, the young woman’s lips curve up in a smile. She’s glad he managed to deal with the situation, even if she is always ready to step in, she wants her intern to be ready and capable of fix problems during a surgery. She won’t be there forever.

“Good, finish everything and later I’ll offer you a coffee.” He nods in agreement at her statement.

Once they exit from the room, both doctors go and inform the family how the operation went. It’s praxis and it’s both the best and worst part of a post-surgery. Usually the family members wait in a couch or chairs or on their feet for the surgeons to tell them anything, the anxiety they feel is indescribable. That’s the reason why when it’s a long surgery someone of the equip go out and give them some information about their beloved one. And when everything go fine, it’s common to receive an hug and a lot of ‘thanks’, and it’s good for the soul. But when the results aren’t great, when there’s some king of complication, that’s when everything suck. The family is broken, they don’t know how to react, they cry or stay still speechless only to find a way to deal with what will happening after. It isn’t easy for the surgeons to tell that their relative is dead or in a coma.

Luckily, now there are only good news for this specific case. Elsa knows that they’ll receive an hug so she takes some steps backward, which action makes Kristoff the subject of the relief of the family’s patient.

The two blondes check one more time the man and after leaving the nurses with some directions they go to the room where there’s a coffee maker, which was given as a gift to the doctors by an old patient. This room doesn’t have a real name, but Kristoff calls it ‘Relax room’ because there are some couches, chairs and even a TV. You come here when you don’t want to go to the cafeteria, for example. Elsa is at the machine and it’s preparing some coffee for her intern. She puts some coffee and water and waits for it to be ready. Since she doesn’t like that drink, she lets some water to boil. She’ll have a cup of tea.

“Thanks for what you did there.” He’s the first to speak. His boss is facing the coffee maker, so he can’t see the expression she’s having.

“You don’t need to thank me, when you’re in that room, you need to be focus and calm. You can’t let your emotion to overwhelm you.”  She takes the mugs from the wall cabinet and starts to pour the dark liquid. “I just want you to be ready and independent during your solo operations. Here.” She handles him the drink and prepares her mug with black tea.

He mouths a ‘thank you’ as he grabs his coffee which he really needs.

“So..” he says after taking a sip from the mug. “Did you enjoy yourself yesterday?”

“Yes and thanks again. It’s nice having a different evening now and then.”

“Next time I’ll have my revenge.” She raises her gaze and arches her eyebrow.

“Are you sure?” then her lips touch the tip of the mug.

“Yep. Totally!” He smirks at himself. He wants to beat his boss, even if he knows that she plays very well since she said she owns a PS3.

Elsa shakes her head at his certainty. He can be a good doctor but she has the felling that she spends more time than the younger man playing videogames. She doesn’t have a great social life since her life is divided into work and home. Besides for working reasons, she goes out when she needs to buy some groceries, when she goes to the gym or when she pays a visit to Marshall or her relatives. It’s rare for her to spend the evenings at pubs or at cinemas or whatever, that’s why she spends a lot of time for her hobbies, such as reading, play the piano and videogames. Sometimes she enjoys drawing too.

 _‘But now I have some sort of friends.. I could.. or should exit more than before.’_  She tells to herself while she’s rubbing the tip of the mug.

While the two surgeons are taking a break, Anna is with her mother at home, finishing the cookies.

“So, I think we have done everything right. They’re almost ready.” Anna says watching the oven. Her mother is washing her hands and with the corner of her eyes she catches Anna trying to put herself in her knees in order to look closer at the cookies.

“Anna, what are you doing? Stop right there. In some minutes they’ll ready. Why are you such in a rush? I mean.. I know you aren’t the most patient person in this planet but.. today you’re awfully impatient.” Gerda arches her eyebrows seeming clearly curious and confused by her daughter’s attitude, even if she has an idea of its reason.

“Well.. I like cookies, Kristoff too.. I want to bring these to them soon! Plus the smell is killing me. Come on, how can you stand there still? I’m starving.” The redhead puffs out.

“Just wait for a little longer, plus you can’t eat them all, if you do so, what will eat those too?” Her mother tries to put some sense in her head.

“Right..” She says a bit embarrassed. She takes her crutches and starts to go to her room. “I think I’ll change my clothes..” she lowers her head in order to emphasize her situation: she has some flour and mixture on her pants and t-shirt. She’s always been a clumsy girl and when she cooks or bakes something the kitchen ends to seem like a battlefield. Her mother has no idea how that is possible and she lost her hope for her to be cleaner and more organized.

“Go, if you need anything call me out.” Anna nods and walks away.

Once she’s in her room she stands in front of her wardrobe. Finally she doesn’t have a lot of trouble in dressing herself. She isn’t sure on what to wear, it’s not like she’s going out for a date, but she has that same nervousness that she should have in that situation. Finally after some minutes looking at all of her clothes she takes some jeans and a shirt. _‘Let’s go with casual.’_ She starts to undress, she begins with the top, when it’s time to remove her pants she can’t help but stop for a second. She gently touch the elastic waistband of the item, the movement reminds her of the day when she was discharged and Elsa had to help her to dress. The redhead remembers how it felt the blonde’s fingers on her skin, even if they were oddly cold, she liked the sparks they sent all over her body. It was like wherever she was touched was in fire. She isn’t able to explain to herself why she felt in that way even if she knows she starts to have some kind of feeling towards the blonde and maybe it’s exactly this the reason.

She removes her pants and massages a little her injured leg. There’s a little scar on it which reminds her of the surgery and of her doctor. _‘That fall was in a way a bless.. I met a wonderful person.’_  Her fingers stop as soon as they reach the scar which doesn’t hurt. She blacks out for a moment and then she realizes that her mother is yelling at her that the cookies are ready. She blinks her eyes and finishes dressing.

She returns to the kitchen and looks at those delicious sweets.

“Oh.. they seems so tasty..” Gerda can’t help but let out a laugh at her daughter face.

“Eat one already!” She exclaims but then she notices how Anna tries to take more and she stops her. “Just one.” Anna puffs but does as told.

“Yep, they’ll like them!” the young woman says happily.

“Okay, then let’s go, shall we?” They puts the cookies in a plastic box.

Back at the hospital Elsa and Kristoff finish to the check all of their patient and now the woman is heading to her office, while her intern goes to a different way: to Mandy. 

Once she’s inside her personal space, she closes her door and takes out her phone.

 _“Elsie! So, we are coming the next Wednesday morning, I know you’re working, we’ll stay until Saturday. Flynn has some working stuff to do. The flight arrives at 9am at the gate 3. Right, I was thinking to pay a visit to Marshall too, since we’re in town. We could go together! Flynn says hi. Go and save the world! Can’t wait to see you. Kisses.”_   Elsa press the reply button and starts typing the message.

 _“Hi Punzy, thanks for the info. I’ll try to be free for the time you’ll arrive, so that I can pick you up. I’ll let you know. I suppose to hear from Marshall in these days, I’ll tell him about you two coming here. I try to keep the world a bit healthier. I can’t wait to see you again, too. I miss you.”_  She sends the text and takes away her phone. After that she goes to her desk and looks for the hundredth time at some papers. It’s from her eye doctor. She is having some little problems with her sight and it’s better if she wear glasses when she reads and when she’s in front of a computer in order to not stress her eyes and avoid the headaches, but besides that, everything is fine. She’s a bit tired and decides to take a nap on the couch in the office, but after only 5 minutes her phone buzzes.

 _“Elsa, would you come to the Relax room for a moment? Thanks!”_   it’s from Kristoff. They exchanged their telephone numbers after that talk at the bar. She snorts for a second but in the end she chooses to stands up and goes to him. She doesn’t know why he wants her to go there, but whatever, she’ll go anyway.

She reaches the door of the room and opens it.

“Kristoff, why did you ask me to..” she stops for a really brief moment when her gaze meet familiar turquoise eyes. “..come here..” she continues in something like a whisper.

“Ehy Elsa!!” Anna says without hiding her happiness in seeing the other woman. She can’t help but go to the blonde and hug her.

“Hi Anna.” After the initial shock she manages to speak up. Suddenly she starts to worry. _“_ Are you okay?” earning a sound of disagreement the blonde ends the hug and looks at the younger woman in front of her.

“I’m totally fine! Actually, I’m doing great. I wanted to surprise you and I succeed in!” she smiles.

“So, if you two have finished, I’d like to try these..” Kristoff finally speaks. He doesn’t want to kill the mood of the girls, but he is dying to eat the cookies Anna baked.

“Right, I came here to bring you two these. As a sign of gratitude for yesterday.” Anna points at the sweets on the table.

“Oh.. you shouldn’t-”

“It was a pleasure.” The redhead stops her and grabs her arm to move her next the table. Elsa takes a cookie in her hand and bite it. She can’t help but let out a pleasant sound.

“Wow, they’re amazing!” She exclaims and eats another one. Usually she doesn’t eat a lot of sweets, but these are delicious. They are normal homemade cookies, there’s nothing special with them. No. There’s something. Anna baked them.

“I’m glad you like them.” Anna keeps smiling at the woman, she’s totally ignoring her cousin, but he doesn’t mind, he’s too busy stealing more cookies possible.

“Seriously Anna, you’re great. What else can you cook?” the older woman takes another piece of art of the redhead and looks at it before put it in her mouth.

“Oh well, various things. Pasta, pizza, some kind of cakes, meat. I try to avoid cooking fish, unless we’re talking about tuna and salmon, because I only like those.”

“She’s this great only because I can’t cook. We lived for a while together and I was lucky enough that she was able to not fire up the house.” Kristoff steps in only for a moment and then returns to his cookies.

“Yeah.. we had ups and downs when we lived together, but I can’t deny that his lack of ability in culinary was a bless for me.” She chuckles.

“So, now that he’s alone in that house?” The blonde asks curiously.

“Easy: home delivery.” Anna replies. “What about you?”

“Me?  Well, I always cook for myself.” She says after eating her last cookie.

“You know what? We could do something like Masterchef. I’d like to try some of your dishes.”

At that Kristoff steps in again.

“Oh, I’ll be the judge! I’m impartial, plus I can’t turn down an offer like that: free food? Yeah!” He exclaims. His cousin rolls her eyes.

“I have some doubts about your impartiality..” Elsa can’t help herself from saying that.

“What!?”

“Well, I’m your boss and she’s your cousin. I don’t want to sound rude or anything bad, but you could be tempt to let me ‘win’ since you know I could make your working life an hell.” Now she’s afraid she crossed a line, she doesn’t know how these friendship’s things work, but she’s relieved when she hears chuckles from the two cousins. _‘I think I'm starting to understand..’_


	20. Chapter 20

It’s Wednesday morning and Elsa is dressing for going to the airport and pick up her cousin and her fiancée. Last shift she talked with Kai asking him for the morning off which he gave her without problems. The young blonde doctor is happy to be able to see  Rapunzel again, it’s been a few since they’ve seen each others. Punzy works for her family company, it’s a big well known multinational and in some years she’ll be the chief of it. Her parents want to retire, even if they know they won’t be able to just stay out of its business and they’ll try to help their daughter behind the scenes, not because they don’t trust in her, but only because they’re used to work and it isn’t easy for them to just ‘suddenly’ quit a large part of their life.

Her fiancée is another story. Flynn Eugene Rider, he doesn’t like to let people know his middle name, but since he’s engaged with Elsa’s cousin, he has to share that ‘secret’ with the blonde. Flynn and Punzy met when she was having some family issues and she decided to go away for a break from them. He didn’t have a fixed job but after Flynn met her he began to change and found a good job. He’s always been that kind of guy who keeps getting himself in troubles, but he’s a good person deep inside.

Etta is trotting in the living room while her owner is searching for her car keys. The cat finds a good spot to stay and watch to the blonde, who is currently cursing herself for not having found them yet. While Etta is climbing the bookcase, a book fell from it and that makes Elsa catches her attention to what her pet is doing.

“Etta!? What are you doing? Get off, now! You know you can’t stay there.” She tells her opening her arms to some kind of invitation for the cat. Her beloved animal roommate jumps in her arms and Elsa gives her a quick peck on that little head.

Some more minutes later she manages to find her car keys and exits from her home to go to the airport. She isn’t late, but she doesn’t like to not be able to do her things at the time she scheduled, she has this thing to plan everything of her day.

The drive lasts about 20 minutes and she manages to find a parking lot quickly. _‘I have the secret!’_ she can’t help the thought. Every time she finds quickly where to park her car, she says that sentence. She takes it from her father who use to do the same exact thing and when she was little she asked him why he kept saying that and he answered _“The secret is being able to find whatever you need and want in a short time. For example I had the secret when I was young because I found your mother soon in this life and soon enough you were born. If you really want something you just have to be positive and optimist.”_

Elsa is listening to some music on her iPod while she waits for her cousin’s plane to land. She keeps her eyes on a display where there’s showed every flight of the morning. She hates being there in the airport, after her parents’ death she travels only with her car or train, anything but airplanes.

After some songs, that means after some minutes, the plane lands and she stands up to go and greeting her cousin. She knows she has to wait a little longer, since the couple need to take their luggage back.

“Elsieee dear!!!” Rapunzel shouts in the middle of the building, her arms wide open, next to her there’s a tired Flynn who’s trying to not let fall their luggage.

“Punzy!! Hi!” The two share a long affectionate hug then the attention of the blonde goes to the poor guy. “Hey Flynn, here let me help you.”

“Thanks Elsa, it’s nice to see you!” He smiles at her.

“So, how was your flight?”

“Boring..” The guy says quietly, he doesn’t want his fiancée to hear his words. But failed.

“I heard you. It was nice even if a bit tiring. But everything is worth since we’re here all together! I missed you so much, Elsie. How life is treating you?”

“I have nothing to complain, honestly. Everything is good.” The blonde says to the brunette. They reach Elsa’s car and she opens it. Flynn and her puts the luggage in the back of the vehicle and after that everyone go inside it.

“Right, how are the things at the hospital doing? Have you made some friends? I guess it wasn’t easy to start again in a different environment.” Her cousin doesn’t know what happened to her at the Southerisland Hospital and she isn’t going to tell her anything about that. She remembers how much Punzy was shocked about her transfer to the Arendelle General Hospital, she kept asking why but the blonde only said she didn’t like anymore her coworker. Well, it wasn’t entirely a lie.

“It’s great, I met nice people, well.. I only have two friends, one is my intern and the other is his cousin who was my patient. Well, she shouldn’t have been my patient, but you know, the thing is..” Elsa tells them how she met Anna, her first impressions of the younger girl and how she became used to the presence of the redhead and Kristoff. She even tells them about that evening pizza at Kristoff’s place.

Rapunzel and Flynn are listening at the story and they’re speechless, they’ve never seen the blonde like this, rambling. It’s something new and her cousin is more than happy to see this change in her. It’s like she’s more alive and if it’s because of those two new friends, well, she should go and thank them. A lot.

“Wow, they seem good people, I’d like to meet them.” The brunette says.

“Yeah, you’d like them.”

Elsa drives the couple to their hotel and once they arrive she stops the car and help them to get comfortable to their room.

“So, I know you two needs a bit of rest, I talked with Marshall yesterday, he suggested to go to dinner tonight or lunch tomorrow all of us together, it depends on how much tired you are and if you have some kind of plans. You have his number right?”

“Yep, but I should check if it’s the right one. Didn’t he changed his number a few ago?”

“Oh right.. Well, I’ll give it to you. Right, I have my shift this afternoon. I took the morning off, but in a few hours I have to go back to the hospital. I’ll finish at 6pm.” The blonde writes in a note the new number of Marshall.

“Okay then, we’ll speak with Marshall later. I think we could have dinner together this evening, only if you’re not too tired from work.” Flynn speaks up.

“We could eat around 7:30pm or 8:00pm so you can shower and get ready without rushing.” Rapunzel adds.

“It sounds good to me. Well, I’ll leave you two be and.. have a nice afternoon. It’s nice to have you here.” The blonde says and Rapunzel decides for a group hug.  “Okay, see you later, then. Have fun!”

She exits from the hotel room and drives straight to the hospital, not seeing the necessity to go home for only an hour and half. When she arrives at her workplace she sees immediately Kristoff flirting with Mandy, she chooses to not disturb them and walks to her office. She’s in no rush, so she watches around her: the nurses are working hard, same the other doctors. Everyone has something to do, a task. There are the family members of the patients, most of them are worried because their beloved ones are in the OR or are recovering, but hospital isn’t only synonymous of sadness, illness and death. There are also joy, love, happiness, especially when patients wake up and their family is next to them, or when there’s a newborn in the room. It’s nice to see them to get better, restart their lives, be together with the one they love and can’t stay without. There is always a double face of the medal, even if most of the people tends to focus on the negative side of things.

The blonde doctor changes her mind and go upstairs, to the maternity ward. She wants to see some cute little children, whenever she needs to distract herself she goes there and stays in front of the mirror where there are those children.

They are in this world only for a few hours, they’re so innocent and they don’t know anything about what life has in store for them. Life isn’t easy, it’s a bitch and they have to be strong to be able to live here. The world in a unforgivable place and they are so little. It’s not easy to work in pediatric, Elsa had worked for a while there, when she was a student and it was quite an experience. She’s a cardiac surgeon, she works on hearts of grownups but of children as well. When you operate on a baby, it’s a lot of pressure mostly  the emotional kind. The parents are a  lot more emotional and it’s totally understandable.

Elsa stays there for some more seconds and then starts walking to her office, leaving those cute little babies alone.

Anna is currently at her third appointment to the physiotherapist and according to him she’s doing great. At first she didn’t think it was necessary but her father persuaded her to go and give it a chance. She starts the session in 30 minutes, she is exiting from the locker room, she is wearing a tracksuit pants and a loose t-shirt. While she’s walking she sees someone familiar.

“Doc!!” she happily shouts. The said doctor faces the source of the voice and recognizes the redhead.

“Ehy Anna! How are you?” it’s easy to notice the joy in the blonde’s voice and her eyes light up.

“Everything’s good, and you?” Anna takes Elsa’s arms under her own and walks with her.

“Fine, thanks, are you going to physiotherapy? How is it going?” The older woman looks down at the now healed leg.

“Yeah… it’s tiring but I have to, or at least that’s what my dad said..” She puffs at the end of her sentence. She didn’t want to do that, but then when she realized that she could end up and see her favorite blonde she couldn’t say no. “Ehy walk me to the room, would you?”

“I thought I was already doing it.” Elsa smirks at her and the redhead notices it.

“Right..”

“But since you asked me.. I’ll escort you to your session with the physiotherapist.” Anna tries to fight back the blush, but fails.

_‘This woman won’t stop making my heart racing whenever she talks with me like that. She treats me like I’m.. I don’t know, like someone worthy, important, like some kind of princess. Oh wow how presumptuous I am. But it would be nice being like this forever. Her arm in mine, walking together, chatting lovely. Yeah I could get used to that.’_

Elsa’s eyes are focused on the redhead at her right, she likes having her around it’s brings light to her days and she needs to understand why of that, and  the reason why her heart can’t help but start racing like a bull when Anna is with her. How is it possible that she is a heart surgeon, she should know everything about the human heart, but still, she doesn’t know why her organ does certain things in certain moments?

“Here, we are arrived to your destination, princess.” Her eyes go wide open at the realization of what she’s just said, or better of how she called the younger woman. Anna has the same reaction, she’s took by surprise by the name, it was like Elsa read her thought of earlier.

“You… I… ehm… Thanks..” that’s what she manages to speak.

“I’m.. sorry..? I didn’t mean to call you like that.. I mean..” Elsa tries to repair the situation, she can feel a bit of awkwardness between the two but she hasn’t words, for the first time she doesn’t know how to explain herself. “I… don’t know what I meant with that sentence.. I’m sorry..” She says in the end because she thinks that it’s better if she’s honest with the girl.

“It’s okay.. don’t worry, really! I was just surprised, that’s all, but if you think I’m offended.. you’re wrong! I’m flattered, you can call me however you want to! I mean.. oh God I should stop talking.” Anna’s face becomes redder and redder after every word she speaks and so does Elsa.

“All right.. well, for now just.. just forget about it and think about something else..” She says not convinced but then something in her mind hit her. “Right, this morning I went to pick up my cousin and her fiancée, I’d like you meet them, you and Kristoff too. She asked me if I made any friends and I talked about you and your cousin so.. we thought it could be nice if you met. We could organize something.”

Anna stays quiet for a moment and then speaks up. “Yeah! I’d like to get to know them.” She smiles.

There’s an awkward silence between them for some seconds but it’s ended by Elsa’s voice.

“I guess you’ll start your session soon and I should get going to work. So, see you later and enjoy your physiotherapy.” She has her hand on the redhead’s shoulder and give it a little squeeze and then takes it off. She nods her head at confirmation at her own words and starts to walk away.

“Yeah, see you Doc!” Anna says before the blonde disappear.

 _‘Okay that was odd.’_ Both of the girl think at the same time after their separation.


	21. Chapter 21

_‘Wait.. did she just say that she wants me to meet some member of her family?’_ Anna is still in front of the door, her eyes are lost in the hallway searching for the blonde who’s not there anymore. She stays there for some more minutes and then decides it’s time to enter the room and start her session.

“Hi Anna, ready?” Her physiotherapist greets her smiling. He’s tall and probably in his 40s, he’s a good guy.

“Let’s do it, the first we start, the first we finish, right dr. Ryder?” he nods at her patient and they begins with some easy exercises.

 _‘I could have asked her to join us this evening..Why had I to panic?’_ Elsa is reading at some medical records, she’s in her office waiting for Kristoff to come back from an exam of a patient in the X-Ray room. _‘She could have some plans and this is the first day for Punzy and Flynn in town.. There’s Marshall too.’_  She takes her phone from her pocket and checks if there are any messages unread. None. _‘But it could be like to kill two birds with one stone. The dinner with those two and Marshall and at the same time the meeting with the cousins.’_

She starts to typing a message to her cousin and Marshall.

 _“Ehy guys, what if this evening come my friends too? You could meet them, hopefully they aren’t busy.”_  The answer comes immediately.

_“Yeah!! It could be awesome! Eating at your place, since there’s the biggest dining room I’ve ever seen.”_

_“Punzy, it’s not that big..”_

_“It is!”_

_“Right.. okay, then I’ll see if they don’t have any plans and I’ll let you guys know.”_ She takes away her phone.

“Hi!” Kristoff says reaching the blonde. She looks at him for a second before speaking. _‘What if they both have plans? Maybe he’s out this evening with Mandy.’_

“Hi Kristoff, how did the exam go?”

“It went good, Mrs. Proust’s new heart is doing great.” He confesses smiley.

“Perfect,” _‘Come on, I’ve already told Marshall and Punzy..and to ask never killed anyone.. right?’_   “this evening are you busy?” she asks trying to sound as casual as possible.

“Mh.. No, I don’t think so, why?” He answers cocking his head a little.

“Do you remember that this morning I went to the airport to pick up my cousin’s fiancée and her? This evening I’ll have a dinner with them and another friend of mine, Marshall. We were talking about how I’m doing here and I talked about Anna and you.. They asked me to meet you two someday while they’re here in town, and I was thinking that maybe you could join us at dinner this evening.”

He stares at her for a moment and can’t help to notice the little nervousness she’s trying desperately to hide.

“Well, I think that it’s work for me. Have you asked Anna yet?” She shakes her head.

“No.. I saw her earlier and walked her to her physiotherapy’s session, we talked a bit but I ended up saying silly things.. I told her about the thing of my cousin, but I didn’t ask her anything. I sort of panicked.” She confesses with something like a whisper.

Kristoff is amused and shocked at the same time: his boss _walked_ her cousin and she _panicked._ It’s not a thing of everyday.

“Why did you panic? It’s not your thing.”

“I.. don’t know..? I mean.. we were talking than I called her _princess_ , I don’t even know why! Then there was this awkward situation..” He tries to fight back a laughter, this woman in front of him isn’t Elsa, it’s Anna. The blonde looks like his cousin right now and it’s funny for him to see this change in his boss.

“Okay, got it.” He finally sits down the little couch and looks directly in the doctor’s eyes. “Usually you have everything under control, but every time Anna is involved, your world goes upside down. Am I wrong?” Kristoff knows that this could be a difficult conversation but he wants to help his friend.

“No, you’re right.. I don’t know why she has this kind of ability. I mean, before she came in my life everything was different. She changed everything and I’m not upset about it..”

“Which is a bit odd for you. That’s what you’re thinking.” She looks at him with wide open eyes and nods slowly.

“How..”

“I’m starting to know you. You’re not easy to understand or to deal with. At first it was like a mission impossible for me to stay here, in this office in front of you, without having the feeling you’d kill me. But now everything is different and it’s because of that feisty pants of my cousin. You told me you grew attached to her, I’ve the feeling is something new for you.”

She nods again unable to speak.

“You like her, you want to make a good impression on her. But you know, you don’t have to, because she already thinks that you’re great. Since the beginning.” He smiles at his boss.

“You think so..?” She finally says quietly.

“I’m sure of it, and do you want to know how I know it?” then she nods again.

“She told me so.”

Elsa doesn’t speak a word she looks at him without showing any kind of emotion. Or at least that’s what she thinks. _‘She thinks I’m.. great?’_ she can’t help but feels warm in her heart and puts an hand over her chest. Her heart beats faster than usual and it’s louder, she can hear the heartbeats in her ears.

Kristoff look at her without saying anything else. _‘I knew she wasn’t a robot.’_

“I should ask her..” she murmurs.

“You should. Go to her as soon as she finishes her session, she’d be more than pleased to see you and come this evening.”

Elsa notices that he didn’t stop for a second to wearing that smile.

“Thanks Kristoff.”

“Well, I’m your friend and if I can be of any help, then here I am.” He points at himself on the couch.

“Sometimes I think you’re my friend only because of it.” She looks at the furniture. “You love it, don’t you?” His only reply is a laughter.

After they finish reading and writing some medical records they go outside the office and check their patient one more time while her intern explain her how the morning went.

After a while Elsa checks her watch and becomes aware of the time. Anna is finishing her session. The blonde says a quick _see you later_ to Kristoff and goes to the redhead.

The cardiac surgeon waits for the younger girl outside the door while she keeps telling in her mind what to say and how to ask Anna to go at dinner with her and the others. The surgeon can’t help but remember the earlier words of Kristoff. She’s stunned by the way that boy managed to read her, he is able to answer at questions that she doesn’t even know yet or she doesn’t know how to reply. She’s used to stay alone and not having someone who could _help_ her whenever she needed. It’s not the first time someone says that she likes Anna and she knows they’re right, she likes that girl and if she could she would stay with her everyday of her life, but she can’t understand why her. She can’t find a reason why she’s feeling this way whenever the redhead is next to her or whenever she thinks about her or talk about her.

_‘It’s incredible how much I’m an ignorant about this kind of stuff..’_

The door next to her starts to open and a familiar young woman comes from the inside of that room.

“Ehy you” Elsa speaks at first and Anna is startled at hearing her voice.

“Elsa!!”  She says eagerly but then she becomes aware of the fact that she didn’t call her _doc_ and they’re not alone. “Oh crap… hi Doc.” Those words come out behind a nervous smile.

The blonde can’t help but chuckle at her reaction, she knows that the two of them should act professionally at others’ presence, especially in Elsa’s workplace, but the doctor is overwhelmed and she doesn’t care right now about the others.

“Don’t worry Anna, how did you session go?” She asks her reaching her arm under her own. This time she moves at first and chooses to walk with her again. The redhead looks at their intertwined arms and starts blushing.

“It went good but I’m a lot tired..”

“Lucky you, you have a nice walking stick with you.” She jokes.

“A gorgeous walking stick you meant.” The words come out her mouth too quickly to be stopped but the blonde seems to not be bothered instead she plays along.

“Glad you like it.”

They reach the locker room and Anna is reluctant to leave Elsa’s arm.

“Ehy.. I wanted to ask you something..” Elsa starts. “Do you have plan this evening?”

Anna’s heart skips a beat at the question, she knows where the blonde is headed.

“No, I’m totally free, why?” She says trying to catch her breath, she isn’t sure why but she’s having some troubles breathing and it’s not because of the physiotherapy but it’s because of a certain blonde’s presence.

“I was thinking that, if you want of course, you could come at my place this evening to have dinner with me, my cousin and her fiancée, Marshall, a friend of mine, and your cousin..” She tentatively says. _‘I had such a great speech in mind.. why my brain doesn’t want to work with me whenever she’s around!?’_

“It would be a pleasure.” Anna smiles at the blonde and squeeze her arm. “And I’ll finally meet Etta.”

“Oh, that’s why you’d come? To see my cat?” she mocks offended.

“Would you blame me? She’s such a cutie!” the redhead takes her tip or her tongue out of her mouth and shows it to Elsa.

“And here I thought I was the cute one.. I even walked you!” She keeps playing to be the offended one but she can’t hide the smirk on her face.

“Etta is cute, but you’re gorgeous. That’s a huge difference.” _‘I should stop saying she’s gorgeous.’_

“Do you think so..?” Elsa decides to stop playing and tries to be a bit more serious. She’s blushing a bit but she wants to know what the redhead thinks about her.

“If my rambling does something good, it’s telling the truth. I should think before talking but I’m not always able to do so. I think you’re a wonderful person, you’re nice, kind, honest, smart, noble hearted, special and yes gorgeous too. You do something really important with your work, you give hopes, life, love to people, and it’s not something everyone can do. I really admire you and I love having you around. I can’t wait to be with you tonight.”

Elsa is taken aback from her statement and she doesn’t really know how to reply at those words. The only thing she’s aware now is that she’s terribly blushing and that her heart is racing, if she didn’t know the symptoms of an heart attack, she would say that she would be having one right there and then. The other thing she notices is the redhead’s hands that are now on her shoulder squeezing her gently. They’re eyes are locked at each other’s.

But after a while the blonde’s eyes start to go down to Anna’s lips.

“Anna..” Both of them are looking at their lips, they come closer without realizing it and they’re a few inches apart now. Elsa’s hands move involuntary at the redhead’s hips and they bring her closer to the blonde’s body.

 _‘Her lips seems so tastefully.. I wonder how it would be..’_ Anna’s thoughts are controlling her actions and her hands are now behind Elsa’s neck trying to let her be closer.

 _‘I could kiss her right here and right now..’_ Elsa thinks but then suddenly they both hear a loud sound coming behind the door. Then they realize that they’re in front of the locker door in the hallway at the sight of everyone. Even if there’s nobody in the proximity they have the feeling to be watched. They ends their embrace and stares at them.

“I.. I should go inside.” Anna says without leaving the blonde’s gaze.

“Right.. so..” Elsa tries to compose herself clearing her throat. “So, I’ll see you this evening. I’ll text you later and I’ll give the directions to Kristoff so he can drive you.” Anna nods and before she enters the room Elsa reaches her hand and squeeze it.

“Thanks.” And she lets her go and walks away leaving a confused Anna behind.

_‘Why did she thank me?’_

The shift ends and the blonde is now at her home only 10 minutes later checking if there’s everything in the fridge. She doesn’t know if ordering  a pizza or cooking something, but looking at her groceries she decides to chose a homemade dinner. She’ll prepare some pasta, a salad and maybe some meat or fish. The group decided to come at her place at 8pm so she has a window of time to do everything she has in mind. Before she starts cooking she goes to take a quick shower. After 30 minutes she’s ready in her kitchen and she decides to cook some steak in tomato sauce, like her mother used to do. She lets the water to boil for the pasta and then prepares the meat. She puts some tomato sauce in a pan and after it’s a bit hot she adds the meat. She always liked to cook this kind of things, when she was little she stayed in the kitchen chair and watched her mother doing her magic.

_“Mom, how works your magic?” a 6 year-old Elsa asks._

_“It’s a secret, but I can tell you this. Come closer so that your father won’t hear.” The blonde little girl walks near her mother and looks at her while she’s cooking some steak. It’s red because it’s in a tomato sauce and it smells delicious._

_“The most important ingredient is..” Katherine leans down at her daughter. “..Love.” she kisses the little head of the blonde. “If there’s love, everything is perfect. When it will be the time for you to cook for someone you’ll understand, dear.”_

Elsa smiles at the memory who came in her mind.

“Mom, you would have loved Anna.” She murmurs while she checks out of the windows, then she hears the doorbell rings. She wipes her hand with the rag and goes to open the door.

“Elsieee!!!” Punzy shouts as soon as she hears her cousin unlocking the door.

“Damn Punzy, I didn’t even open the door!” Elsa chuckles and then she watches as the brunette walks, no jumps in the house and hugs her. After the greeting she looks at the others.

“Hi Marshall, Flynn.” They wave at her and walks in. _‘They’re a bit more polite than this crazy brunette.’_

“Mmmh what a lovely smell!” Flynn says.

“I hope you’ll like the dinner, please feel free to take off your coats, I’ll take them away right now.” She closes the door, knowing that Kristoff and Anna are on their way she decides to not lock it.

“So, we’ll finally meet these two famous friends.” Punzy speaks up.

“Honestly I can’t wait to meet this Anna, she seems to be something..” Marshall looks at Elsa’s cheeks who starts to blush.

“You’ll love them, I’m sure of it.” Elsa smiles and then they hear the doorbell rings again. “They’re here.” Elsa jumps at the sound and she runs at the door.

Her cousin watches her reaction and she’s amused. _‘She’s changed so much, she’s happier, it’s like she’s living for real. Who could be the cause of this change? This Kristoff guy?’_ Elsa opens the door and the two cousins walks in smiling at their host.

“Hi Elsa. Hello everyone, I’m Kristoff, Elsa’s colleague.” He presents himself to the others.

_‘He’s cute. Maybe..’_

After Kristoff enters in the house he goes closer to the other to catch their names and then Anna shows up at the threshold.

“Ehy Heart’s Doc.” The redhead is wearing a wonderful light green dress under a black coat, her hair is down and she has a little bit of makeup.

“Hi Anna.. you look.. gorgeous..” Elsa manages to speak but it’s more like a whisper that everyone succeeded in hearing it. The younger girl blushes and smile nervously, than she remembers that there are other people in the house.

“Hi! I’m Anna, Kristoff’s cousin, nice to meet you all!” She waves at them. “Ah, I brought a dessert, I hope you don’t mind it.”

“Thanks! You shouldn’t have..” She says taking the big box from the redhead’s hands.

 _‘Oh look what do we have here.. Elsa dear, you were hiding that from me?’_ Punzy smirks at the couple of young women.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!! The sentence "it could be like to kill two birds with one stone." comes from the Italian manner of speaking "prendere due piccioni con una fava." I asked around how that sentence is told in English and some of my English friends told me that.. so I hope it's correct if not.. Sorry and it's their fault! xD


	22. Chapter 22

After the redhead finally walks to the living room to meet the others, the blonde host locks the front door and goes to place the dessert in the fridge and then to take away the coats of her guests.

“So, you are Anna, Elsa talked a lot about you. It’s nice to finally put a face on that mysterious girl.” Punzy gets closer to the younger woman and lets her gaze to wandering all over her. _‘I can’t deny the fact that she’s attractive. But there’s something else..’_

“She talked about me..?” Anna asks surprised and at the same time a bit embarrassed. The brunette only nods at that question. “Well, it’s nice to meet you too, I heard you two arrived this morning. How was your flight? From where are you? If I may ask..”

“It was good, and yes, you may ask don’t worry. I used to leave here in this town, but life brought me somewhere else,” She looks at Flynn and smiles. Anna follows her glare and notices how much love there’s between the two. Elsa’s cousin fiancée is talking with the other guys, probably about sport or cars or other manly topics. “To my heart.” Punzy finishes.

Anna’s eyes are searching for a certain blonde and as soon as they meet her, she stops breathing. When the redhead was at the threshold greeting Elsa, she couldn’t help but stare at the doctor, she was wonderful in that dress and right now they all are in the living room and there’s a lot more light than in the threshold and that makes easier Anna’s job, which consists in scrutinizing her favorite doctor. She’s wearing a dark dress just a little bit below her knees and as soon as she gives her back to the others, the redhead gasp at the view: her back is a bit uncovered and can’t help but notice that she’s not wearing a bra.

_‘She’s.. like a goddess on Earth.’_

Punzy smirks at the frozen face of the woman in front of her who’s staring at her cousin. After Elsa turns her back, the brunette seems to hear something coming from the redhead and she faces her to check if she said in fact something.

“Anna? Have you seen something you like?” Punzy teases her.

“Yeah.. wait what? Sorry, have you just said something?” Anna comes back from her trance state.

“You were almost drooling.” The brunette chuckles at the other woman’s face who’s blushing.

“Well.. I..” She tries to say something but her tongue doesn’t want to collaborate with her.

“Oh don’t worry, I guess it’s because of Elsa..” the redhead doesn’t know how to reply to that, it’s not like she was wrong, but she’s the blonde’s cousin, they just met.

 _‘Damn.. am I that obvious? I didn’t realize I was staring.. she was talking to me, how rude of me not to pay attention on her words..’_ Punzy points at the blonde who’s in the kitchen. “..she’s a great cook. It looks delicious, I can understand why you were drooling.”

 _‘Sure.. it was because of that..’_ Anna nods at the brunette and they walks in the kitchen to join the guys.

“Wow.. Elsa, the smell is so good!” Kristoff says sitting at the table and watching at the plates. “Anna, be careful, she could beat you when you two will do the cooking contest.”

“We’ll see, I can’t deny it looks great.. but maybe I still have chance to be the winner, we haven’t tasted it yet.” She smirks at the blonde cook.

“I don’t know anything about this.. challenge between you, but I can’t wait to eat something! I’m starving. Punzy didn’t let me eat anything during the day.. only something at lunch and nothing more.” Flynn says almost in tears.

“I told you, you need to eat less junky food and this is my cousin’s cooking and I want you to fully enjoy it. You’ll thank me later.”

“It’s been a while since I ate something homemade and I’m sure your skills are improved since the last time.” Marshall smile at his friend.

“Thanks guys, I just want to warn you..”

“..it’s poisoned? Ah! I’ll win!” Anna exclaims and puts out her tongue, the blonde’s aware of the playful tone of the redhead and reply at that shaking her head and showing her tongue too.

“Nope, just something different that maybe some of you haven’t ever eaten before. But, I hope you all enjoy the dinner. Before we start, wine or beer?” Elsa is in front of the fridge taking out a bottle of wine and then one of beer.

Kristoff and Marshall decides to not drink neither of them taking the excuse of being the drivers, then Elsa offers them a coke, which they accept without a second thought. The host opts for wine, while the others beer.

“So.. what do you think?” Elsa asks the redhead at her right.

“I have to admit it.. it’s delicious. You’re really great.” She says after finishing to chew and the blonde blushes a little at the statement.

“Tell me Marshall, for how long you know her?” Kristoff asks to the big guy in front of him.

“Well, since she was a kid. Her parents and I were friends.” He says.

“Oh! How was she when she was little? I bet she was a cutie!” Anna steps in their conversation. She’s imaging a little blondie running in circle in the room and her parents calling for her and chasing her.

“I think she was cuter.”

“Ehy!” Elsa speaks and sends a look to her friend, he just chuckles.

“She wasn’t like she’s now, actually she was the opposite.”

“Yeah, I remember.. now she seems such an adult, but when we were little she was a brat! At least when her parents weren’t around.” Punzy smiles remembering the old times when her cousin and her were little and carefree. “She was alive.” She states meeting her icy blue eyes.

Elsa stops her movements, she wants to answer-back but something prevents her to do so. What? The reality of that statement. She knows that the brunette is right. She stopped living once she became an orphan, she lost her light and from then on she spent her days in the dark.

Until now.

Anna looks at her left and sees how much sad Elsa looks, and she doesn’t like it, she wants the blonde to smile, but she’s aware that it’s not always possible.

“But, I think that now things are changing, and I think I should thank you.” Punzy speaks again, this time looking at the redhead and Kristoff.

“Honestly, I think you should thank Anna here.. your cousin and I didn’t have a great start..”

“I’m your boss, I suppose to be bossy and bitchy.” She smirks.

“I think you’re right, your Majesty, Ice Queen.” He answers back.

“That’s what people are calling you now? It kinda suits you, Elsa.” Flynn says but then he returns to his meal, not giving too much attention to the topic of the conversation, he wants to eat and since he was starving, he’s not that much interested in talking.

“That’s because they don’t know you! If they did, they wouldn’t be such assholes.” Anna complains. Even if it’s not a secret that she doesn’t like how people treat her doctor, Punzy is surprised to hear those words.

“You can’t deny that she’s difficult to deal with..” The brunette says.

“No, but..” She replied.

“Tell me, what were your thoughts at the beginning? When you didn’t know her.”

“I thought she was an interesting person, the first time I’ve seen her we were at the cafeteria, and she was telling Kristoff to finish chatting with me and go the check on a patient, then when I tried to talk with her she said she had other things to do and left, saying bye.”

“ _Ice Queen_ , now I understand why.” The brunette chuckles.

 _‘Are they aware that I’m right here..?’_ Elsa thinks while listening to the girls talking. It’s a bit embarrassing for her to stand there and has to hear what the two of them have to say, especially Anna, since she cares a lot of what that girl thinks.

“Well, that’s understandable, I was rambling and she was working so.. but that’s not a reason to call her like that. She’s a great surgeon and I thought that since the beginning, when I was in the E.R. we officially met, so to speak, I knew she was called that, but I had the feeling that  it wasn’t true. In fact, I had the privilege to spend sometimes with her, and she’s more than a good company. I’ll admit that she doesn’t open up to people easily, I had to work hard to arrive where I am now, but you know what? It’s worthy.” She looks at the now blushing blonde at her left and smiles. “I’m her friend and she’s the best, even if she doesn’t acknowledge it.”

Punzy is taken aback from her speech, from an outsider it’s like their together in a more than friend relationship, but she just said ‘friend’. She takes a careful look at the redhead’s eyes and she could swear she sees something, then she gives her attention to her cousin and notices that she’s in the same situation as the other girl. _‘They don’t realise it.. how can somebody be so blind?’_

“She’s a keeper.” Flynn speaks again. “Anna, I mean. Don’t do anything stupid, Elsa.” At that everybody look at him shocked and speechless.

“What? Why are you watching at me?” He looks down at himself. “Do I have something on my face?”

Anna and Elsa can’t stop blushing while Kristoff tries to fight back a laugher. Marshall realises how much embarrassed the girls are and decides to lighten up the mood.

“Despite how much interesting is becoming this evening, why don’t we try the dessert? I’m curious to eat what Anna brought us.” The younger women look at him gratefully then Elsa stands up.

“Yeah, totally. Dessert on the way.” She walks to the fridge and takes out the box and looks at it.

“Wait, I’ll help you.” Anna follows the blonde. They open the box together and Elsa stays with her mouth open.

“Wow.. did you bake it by yourself?”

“Yep, I hope you’ll like it. It’s-” She takes the cake.

“..a black forest cake. One of my favourite..” as soon as she cuts it she’s surprised by how great Anna has been in baking it. The layers of chocolate, whipped cream and cherries are perfect. Just watching at it makes you drooling.

“Really? Oh, what a coincidence! I didn’t know what to make and I opted for my favourite one.”

“Let me tell you: you chose well.” After they finish to place each pieces of cake on the plates they bring them to the others and start eating them.

Soon enough they finish the dessert and don’t stop saying how much great the cake was.

“I think the Masterchef challenge will be hard for both of you. You are both incredible.” Kristoff says.

“Ehy, I’m not an expert of food or whatever but I could help you judge them when you’ll do this competition.” Marshall offers.

“Yes! Thanks! You’d help me a lot man!”

“Okay people, if you want you can move to the living room, I’ll join you as soon as I put these in the sink.” Elsa exclaims while she starts to collect the dishes.

“I’ll help you cousin!” the blonde nods and they clear the table, in the meantime the others sit in the couch and talk about everything and anything.

“So..” the brunette starts.

“What?” the cousin asks checking if the table was clear enough.

“Anna.”

“What about her?” Elsa stays still looking behind her at Punzy.

“She’s nice, isn’t she?”

“I told you.” Elsa smiles at herself.

“What do you think about her?”

“What do you mean?” Elsa walks closer to the sink so that their conversation cannot be overheard by anyone.

“Well, I couldn’t help but notice how you two look at each other. Do you like her?” Elsa looks away and starts playing with a fork.

“She’s.. she’s a good friend and I enjoy her company.”

“Is she?” Elsa looks at her cousin confused. “Is she just a friend to you?”

 _‘There.. I knew she’d ask something like that. What am I suppose to do now?’_ the blonde sighs and looks at the redhead who’s chatting with Marshall. “I like her.”

Punzy gently smiles at her and puts an hand on her shoulder, this shouldn’t be easy for her to admit it out loud, especially to a member of her family. “It’s okay, she’s good for you. She brings you life and honestly? That’s all that matters to me. I think you’re finding your way to heal, Elsie.”

Anna is next to Marshall and they’re talking when Etta jumps on the redhead’s legs.

“Oh.. so you are Etta! You’re so cute! Hi, I’m Anna.” She says and the cat starts purring as her hand caresses her back.

“She’s the daughter of your cat, right?” he nods. “Thanks.” He looks at her confused.

“For what?”

“For giving her to Elsa. You know, she’s happy with her. She sent me some pictures of the two of them and it’s clear how much Etta helps. They love each other and it’s nice to have a pet in your home, it’s like you’re not alone and you know there’s someone waiting for you after work.”

He smiles at himself and shakes internally his head.

“Etta may be helping that girl in the kitchen, she’s not the one who helped her the most.”

“You do?”

“No, well, we are old friends, as to speak, but I couldn’t be able to let her feel really better after everything she’s been through. Even if she kept saying she was fine I knew she wasn’t for real, but then something happened.” 

“What happened?” Anna is curious now and stops caressing Etta.

“You happened.” He chuckles at her wide open eyes. “You are some kind of blessing. She’s more alive, she’s happier, she’s getting out from that dark zone. Thanks to you.”

Anna has the feeling that Marshall is keeping something from her.

“Marshall can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“What happened to her? Why does everyone keep saying that she wasn’t alive anymore or stuff like that?” she is truly curious but at the same time she is concerned.

“You shouldn’t ask me this, but her. I don’t know how much you know about her. I’m sorry. It’s her story to tell.”

“No, I am.. Thanks anyway.”

“Ah, here you are. Are you cheating on me?” Anna’s startled by Elsa’s voice and she turns her face to see her behind her and the couch.

“What?”

“Etta, I thought you loved me..” Anna looks down at her lap and notices that the cat keeps purring.

“I am sorry Els, maybe she prefers redheads.” She smirks at the blonde.

“How was that? _Like mother, like daughter_?” Marshall says between chuckles.

“What was that about?” Punzy joins the guys in the couch. “Why are you chuckle Marshall?”

“Oh, you know.. Etta has a thing for redheads, just like someone we all know.”

“Right! Elsa, you taught well to you _daughter_.” Punzy smirks at her cousin.

“Oh come on guys! Really!?” Elsa finds herself blushing for like the hundredth time that evening.


	23. Chapter 23

Elsa stands on the threshold watching at Rapunzel, Flynn and Marshall walking to their car.

 _“I think you’re finding your way to heal, Elsie.”_ She closes the door and turns towards the other two in her living room.

 _‘Am I? Is she my cure..?’_ she looks at her cat playing with some lock of red hair, the owner of it smiles warmly at the furry animal.

Kristoff stands up from the couch and goes to his boss.

“Ehy, everything is okay?” he whispers to her

“Yeah, everything is perfect..” she whispers back.

“Good, ehm…where’s the bathroom?”

“The last door on the left.” She points at the hallway he nods and excuses himself.

Elsa sits on the couch next Anna and pats Etta’s back gently.

“You two are awfully getting closer.. should I be worried?” she teases the redhead.

“Well, you know.. she’s a cutie and honestly? The pictures don’t make her justice.”

“Everything is better in person, isn’t it?” after some other caresses from the two women Etta decides to leave them alone and trots away. “..aand there she goes.” The blonde chuckles at her cat’s action.

“Thanks for inviting me today.” Anna speaks after a bit.

“I was afraid you couldn’t come.. I really wanted you to meet them and have you here..” she confesses and looks at her hands, she refuses to meet her eyes because she knows she couldn’t handle them right there and then. She wishes the evening to never end, but tomorrow both Kristoff and her have work and that means they have to wake up early.

“It was nice meeting someone who’s important to you. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now.” Anna takes the blonde’s hand between hers and her eyes go to the icy blue ones that are still looking down. She’s fully aware that she needs to go back home soon and can’t stay at her place for too much longer, despite her desire to do so. She squeezes gently the hand and gives a shy smile. “But we both know that Kristoff and I will go in a few, I wish it was Friday.”

“Me too.” Elsa says quietly, it’s like those words were in her mind instead of her tongue.

“I hope I won’t sound too presumptuous but it’s not like we won’t see each other again, are we?” she says this time with a little bit nervous smile.

“I owe you the pizza evening, so you are neither presumptuous nor wrong. In fact, I’d love you to come again.” _‘Just you this time.. I’m sick of having to share you with others.’_ This time her eyes decide to meet the turquoise ones and the blonde sees something in them, like a little spark. She’s not quite sure if she’s reading them well but she’d swear the redhead is smiling with just her eyes.

“Whenever you want.” Anna breaks for a second the stare at Elsa and checks if her cousin is around, after she’s satisfied to see that they’re alone in the living room she looks again the blond and smiles while her arms go to embrace the woman’s figure.  For a moment she thinks she’s doing something wrong because the doctor is still and it’s almost like she isn’t even breathing but then she feels her back being hold and can’t help but let out a content sigh.

At first Elsa is taken by surprise by the redhead’s action and she doesn’t know how to reply to this, it’s not the first time they hug, but this time it feels different. It’s like there’s something going on inside her belly and her face becomes a bit warmer than the usual, by now she should be used to this kind of reaction of her body to the other woman’s presence. Her arms move according to their own desires and minds and hug Anna back, then she lets out a breath she doesn’t know she is holding and notices the same thing about the redhead: she can feel her light breath on her neck and it’s a nice sensation.

The two stay in this embrace for a while and the blonde isn’t aware of her hands that are now drawing circles on the woman’s back. _‘She smells like vanilla..’_ Elsa thinks about the perfume of the redheads’ hair, she deepens her head a little in Anna’s hair and smiles at the softness. When she moves a little to her left, her lips find the warm skin of the neck and they lay slightly there.

The younger woman can’t suppress a moan at the sensation of those lips on her and that sound makes something to the blonde. She feels brave enough to kiss that neck, and so she does. She gives a light gentle kiss to the exposed skin and notices how breathing becomes harder for the redhead, she can’t help but smile at that. One of her hand leave Anna’s back and goes to her neck and caress it, then she moves her lips up reaching her jaw, then her cheek. She kisses it and then breaks that contact to look at the redhead’s eyes, which are closed now.

When Anna doesn’t feel the blonde on her anymore she opens her eyes and sees how Elsa is watching her, there are a lot of emotions on her icy blue pearls, but one in particular catches her attention: fear.

“Elsa..” she starts but the blonde closes her eyes and turns pink. “Elsa..” she tries again, this time taking her face on her hand and trying to force her to look at her.

“Anna.. I’m-” the redhead has the feeling she’s going to apologize for what she did but she doesn’t let her.

“If you’re saying you’re sorry I stop you, right here and right now.” She says in a low voice that sends some kind of warm sensation to the blonde’s belly. “Don’t be.”

“I.. I don’t know what’s going on with me..” Elsa admits quietly meeting her gaze, but soon enough her eyes goes down to the redhead’s lips. “I..”

“You what?” Anna says after she understands that the blonde won’t finish the sentence, she’s aware of where those eyes are now. “What do you want..?” she asks gently at the woman in front of her, even if she has an idea of what the answer would be.

Elsa doesn’t reply she just closes the gap between the two and, finally, can feel the taste of those lips on hers. _‘They’re so soft.. and sweet..’_ she thinks when keeps them connected. Anna’s hands start caressing her cheeks and when she kiss her back she can’t help but let a small smile.

That morning they were about to do this exact same thing but they hadn’t had the chance, and now there they are, on Elsa’s couch, in her living room, in her house, after a pleasant evening with-

 _‘Shit!’_ Elsa ends the kiss and opens her eyes, suddenly realising _where_ they are. The redhead opens her eyes as well with a bit of confusion.

“Elsa?”

“Sorry.. I..” she starts

“Everything’s okay..? I did something wrong?” Anna is afraid of rejection or she doesn’t know what.

“No, no! it was.. it was amazing, but..”

“Oh..” she says sadly. _‘Rejection, here it comes..’_

“Damn, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that! I.. it’s just that.. Kristoff..”

“What about- Oh!!! Right!!” then she realises that her cousin could have been there and found them kissing. Both of them start to looking around and they don’t find him in the room and let out a sigh of relief.

“So.. that’s why you stopped.” Anna states.

“Yeah, sorry about that.. I was thinking about this morning in front of the locker room and then I realized where we are and.. well I sort of panicked.” She says with a nervous smile.

“Wow.. you’re so cute..” Anna can’t help but says while she looks at the blonde.

“Excuse me..?” now her smile fades away and her face is like on fire now.

“Even if you’re clearly nervous, your smile is beautiful and it’s like the first time I see one on your face.” She says trying to recompose herself and then the blonde smiles again, this time is a genuine shy one. _‘I could die right now.. she’s just perfect.’_

Finally Kristoff decides to walk in the living room, having the feeling it’s safe and clear to go there. He knows what was happening, when he left them to go to the bathroom he stayed there for a while and when he was returning to them he heard the moan of his cousin and tried to not chuckle at that and walked back to the bathroom, since he didn’t know where else to go. When he heard voices he understood they finished whatever they were doing.

“Elsa, I think I got lost in your bathroom, I think I fell asleep for a bit in there..” he sees the flushes on the girls’ faces and decides to not make fun of that.

“As soon as you haven’t broken anything, it’s okay.” Elsa tells him and stands up.

“Well, it was a nice evening and I’m sorry to kill the mood but I guess it’s time for us to go, I don’t want to be late at work tomorrow morning, I know how you are when it happens.” He doesn’t want just go away right now but he knows what time is it and the girls needs a cold shower, damn he could cut with a knife all of that tension that there’s in that room in that exact moment.

“Yeah.. well, thanks for coming guys.” She says while reaching their coats.

“No, thanks to you.” Anna smiles at her and wears the coat.

They hug and the blonde walks them to the door.

“See you tomorrow morning, Dr Bijorman.” She says smirking.

“Sure thing, Dr. Winters.” He smiles and then they walk to the car and leave the woman alone in her house.

She looks at the table that previously was full with people and smiles with a bit of sadness.

She has forgotten how nice it is to have people around you, and she can’t deny the wish to have more days like this one. What’s the point in having a big house and not sharing it? Thinking about the evening she realises how lonely she is, and even if there’s Etta, it’s not the same.  It has never bothered her much, but now, her life is different, she’s not alone anymore, she has friends and sometimes she thinks if that’s right for her to have them, in her mind it’s like she’s not worthy, but then she remembers the evening, she remembers the room full of joy, and if she wasn’t sure about the what day of the year was, she would have swear it was Christmas.

After she turns off the light in the living room she walks to the bathroom and checks if everything is in order and she starts with her night routine. She washes her face and brushes her teeth, then she goes to her bedroom and changes herself in her pyjama, but once she’s in her bed she realises she isn’t sleepy. She turns her face to her right and sees on the night table a photo of her parents and her when she was 2 years old. What would they think about her? What would they tell her about what is happening with Anna? Would they be okay with it? Would she be able to talk about it with her mother? How would it be if they still were alive?  So many questions and neither an answer.

She is so deep in her thoughts that when she hear her phone buzzes she is startled by it. She takes it and unlocks it in order to read the new message.

_“Ehy Elsa, I don’t know if you’re sleeping and if so, I hope I won’t wake you up. I just wanted to let you know that I enjoyed every second of our evening and I hope you too.. and.. I hope you don’t regret anything, I mean the kiss, I liked it, I wanted to tell you this before, but well.. Kristoff came so I stayed quiet. Anyway, I’ll leave you to your sleep. Good night and have sweet dreams.”_

“Anna, quoting you, I enjoyed every second of our evening and no, I don’t regret the kiss. Actually, I was afraid you did and I have to admit that I didn’t know what I was doing when I started kissing your neck, I mean, we were hugging and then.. I don’t know, I just felt it right to do so. I’m glad you liked it. I’m going to sleep right now, but I just want to say you that I can’t wait to see you again. Sleep well and have wonderful dreams, I’m sure I will.”

She press the send button and smiles at herself.

She doesn’t regret it.

Honestly? She wants that to happen again and again, because even if at first she wasn’t too much pleased about having to deal with the redhead, now she looks forward to see her, talk with her and yes hug and kiss her too. She doesn’t know what tomorrow will bring, but she’s more than sure that she wants to find out what will happen next.

_‘Maybe Rapunzel is right, maybe my broken heart can heal, hell, maybe it’s healing right now.’_

Elsa locks her car in the hospital’s parking lot she’s pleased to see that Kristoff’s car is already there.

 _‘That’s a first.’_ She walks inside her workplace and as soon as she wears her white coat her pager buzzes. She takes it and read the blue display.

_“Dr. Summers’ office asap.”_


	24. Chapter 24

Elsa is walking to her chief’s office and she has to admit to herself that she is a bit worried about the reason he wants to see her, she has this feeling that it won’t be a nice meeting with him. She stands in front of the door and knocks a few times waiting nervously to hear the man’s voice behind that wood.

“Come in.” she hears from the inside and after she takes a deep breath she enters in the room closing the door behind her.

“Dr. Summers, did you want to see me?” she asks trying to sound as calm as possible. _‘It’s not like he knows about Anna and I… is it? Oh damn...’_

“Good morning and yes, please sit down.” And so she does. “I asked you to come here because I have to talk with you about a certain topic.”

 _‘Here we go.. I’ll be fired because I kissed his daughter, oh man.. now that things were getting better!!’_ Elsa can’t help but panic inside and just nods at him not trusting her voice.

“I need you to explain this to me.” And he tosses her a folder which she takes right away and opens it.

“What the..” she looks at the papers regarding her past with Hans Southerisland. A part of her is glad that it’s nothing about Anna and her but the other one is pretty concerned about this file. It’s all the documentation about the trial that involved her in the past months and she doesn’t even need to take her glasses and read because she recognises them, Marshall has the same copy in his study. She swallows hard and lifts her eyes to meet her chief’s.

“Look, I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t ask for this.” He points to the folder in the woman’s hands. “but I found it on my desk his morning when I arrived. I called my secretary and she said the prison sent it to me, because this morning Mr. Southerisland came in the E.R. with a heart condition and escorted by some officer. I haven’t seen him yet but as soon as I read your name on this file I had to call you here. I didn’t read the entire document and I won’t.” he assures her sending a comforting look. He stands up and walks slowly to her and taking the folder from her and places it on the desk.

“If you want and need, you can talk about that, if not, there’s no problem.”

“I.. prefer not to, sir.” She admits with a shaking voice and he nods.

“That’s okay. I can only imagine how much it could be difficult for you. You won’t treat him, I don’t want him near to you.” He declares and Elsa is more than moved from his decision but she has a question that is torturing her and Kai precedes her.

“Bijorman will take the case, being under your wing is making him one of the best and the lawyer wants his client to be treat by the best. You are, but I as I told you, I don’t want him near to you.”

Elsa is really speechless and she doesn’t even know what to think, she thought she would have been free from that man but she was deceiving herself. She’s trying to deal with the new information when Kai lets Kristoff come in, he looks at her with worried eyes because he doesn’t know why he’s here and why the woman is there looking like a broken glass, could it be that Kai knows about Anna and her?

“Kristoff, I called you because you’ll have to work on a case.”

“Okay, what have we got?” he asks sitting on the chair next to Elsa.

“Male, 28 years old, cardiology’s matter, he’s in a private room of the E.R. and you need to check him.”

“All right, let’s go then, Dr. Winters.” But she stays still.

“No, this is _your_ case, only you. She can’t and won’t treat him.” Kai doesn’t know if it’s wise to tell the intern how the situation is delicate, but he trust Elsa talks with him if she thinks it’s needed.

“Oh.. okay then, see you later.” And the young surgeon goes away leaving the other two alone in the office.

“Dr. Winters, if you need to go home-”

“No. I need to distract myself. I still have my old cases, right?”

“Yeah..”

“Good, then I’ll go and make my rounds.” She stands up and before leaving she speaks again. “This is all confidential, I’m confident you won’t say a word to others.”

“Of course.” He says almost like offended but he knows that it’s a sensitive topic for the woman. After she exits he looks at the folder on his desk and sighs loudly.

he opened it before calling Elsa, he read only the first sentences of the file saying that Hans was a prisoner guilty for indecent assault on several women and the one who pressed charges against him was his blonde cardiac surgeon, Dr. Winters. Then he stopped reading and talked with his secretary on the phone for some explanations and asked for Elsa.

 _“Life is a bitch, isn’t it?”_ he murmurs to himself and takes the document away. When

Kristoff arrives to his new patient and he keeps thinking that he’s happy to finally have a case only by himself but something tells him that he shouldn’t feeling like that and it’s not because it’s about a person who’s suffering but it’s about someone who can’t be treated by his boss. As soon as he enters the private room he notices the officers and sees the man handcuffed. _‘He’s a criminal.’_

“Good morning Mr. Southerisland, I’m your doctor, Dr. Bijorman.” The man looks at him with a disappointed look.

“Where’s that bitch?” Kristoff is taken by surprise and he thinks that maybe he doesn’t need a cardiac surgeon but a psychiatrist.

“Excuse me?”

“Elsa, where’s she?” he barks and now the blonde understands why the woman couldn’t work on this patient, they know each other and apparently they have history and not a nice one. Then the officers come closer to Hans and show him their gun and send a glare that says to stay quiet and let the doctor do his job.

“I need to check your heart. What happened?” Kristoff chooses to avoid answering at the question. _‘I’ll talk with Elsa later, I think she’ll need a friend now..’_

The blonde young woman has finished her rounds and now she’s walking to the Relax room in a huge need of a hot tea. She hopes this day will end soon and without further surprises. Once she arrives she’s happy to see that there’s nobody in there, so she can have some time for herself.

 _‘Everything was doing fine..’_ she thinks looking at the hot mug on the table, she watches how the vapour comes from the hot liquid. She doesn’t know what to do, should she call Marshall and tell him what’s happening? She knows he’s at work right now and she doesn’t want to bother him so she takes out her phone and is about to start writing a message when she hears something. She freezes and her mind goes straight to Hans but her brain tries to tell her that he can’t hurt her anymore and he’s not here but in an hospital bed. She slowly turns and takes a sigh of relief.

“Ehy, I didn’t know you would have been here today.” She says gently.

“Yeah, well.. I forgot to tell you that my physiotherapist misses me. Good morning.” The familiar redhead smiles at her and walks closer to her.

“How is that you know about this place?”

“Easy, my cousin.” Elsa stands up and gives the younger woman a soft smile.

“It’s nice to see you, have you slept well?” Anna nods and hugs her gently.

“Can I tell you something?” she asks while she keeps her in her arms.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“I missed you and that smile.” Anna doesn’t know if she can kiss her lips right now but decides to not to, instead she gives her a peck on the cheek and sits next the chair where previously was occupied by Elsa.

“How is your day going on?” the redhead asks casually looking at the mug then she notices something odd in her doctor’s face.

“Good, I’ve just finished to check on some patients and now I’m taking a break, what about you?” _‘There’s no need to tell her about that..’_

But Anna realises that she isn’t entirely telling her the truth, even if she has the feeling to not press on the matter for now.

“Oh you know, a bit tired of doing physiotherapy. Listen, I was thinking this morning that maybe if Rapunzel and Flynn stays here until the weekend we could do something, for example go to the lake or if the weather is ugly we could do that Masterchef challenge, there will be more judges and as I always says: more people mean more fun! Of course Marshall too.” Elsa thinks about that for a moment and then replies.

“Well, they leave Saturday.. I think Kristoff and I have Friday free so maybe we could spend the day all together, but I have to ask them. I’ll let you know, okay?” and at that on the redhead’s face a big wonderful smile shows up and the blonde can’t help but chuckle at it. They talk about everything and nothing for a while and after a while Anna watches the other woman in silence thinking about the last evening and what everyone kept saying.

“Elsa.. may I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.” The blonde keeps tapping the mug in front of her.

“You see, yesterday everyone kept saying you changed a lot and that you weren’t _‘alive’_ , why? I mean, to me it doesn’t seem so, you seem a lot _‘alive’_ , what happened to make them say that..?” the doctor stops her hands and changes her facial expression, she knew that sooner or later the redhead would have asked something like that, she’s surprised Kristoff didn’t tell her anything but at the same time she’s glad.

“You don’t have to answer.. if I made you-” she starts.

“No, it’s okay. It’s just..” she takes a deep breath before saying something more. “As you now know, I was a little brat when my parents weren’t around, that’s because they were strict, mostly my father, they wanted the best for me and I can’t stop thanking them for how they raised me. I was born in a family of surgeons and they expected me to become one too, so since I was little they brought me in the world of medicine, I went with them to conventions, museums, everything related to this job.” She smiles a little remembering when they went for the first time to the scientific museum and she found out how to extract DNA. “People use to think that it’s not a nice way to raise a child, but that’s not entirely truth. I mean, I hadn’t such a great social life like everyone else of my age, but I was okay with it, because my parents loved me and they tried to give me everything I needed. My mother taught me a lot, she wasn’t like my father, focused only on medicine, but she wanted me to learn how to play piano, for example, or cook or simple things like kindness, love.” She tries to fight back some tears, she doesn’t want to cry in front of Anna. “Despite my ‘ _intellectual childhood’_ I was happy, but then..  I was 15 years old, there was an accident, my parents were flying to a meeting and I couldn’t go with them. The plane crashed and they died and with them my life too. Since then I closed myself, I became this.. _Ice Queen_. Marshall became my legal tutor and my best friend.”

Anna can see the hurt in those icy blue eyes and the tears that are trying to make their way, she extends her hand and places it gently on the blonde’s forearm. She doesn’t know what it’s like losing someone you love, but now she thinks she understand the woman a little more.

“I’m sorry..” she mumbles, what could she say? It’s not like there’s a protocol for this kind of things. “I didn’t-”

“It’s okay, Anna. Don’t worry, you asked and I answered and it’s not like I wouldn’t have told you all of that sooner or later, it’s just.. hard to talk about that, but I’m fine.” The blonde looks into turquoise eyes and her hand cover the redhead’s, then she gives her a smile trying to reassure her.

 _‘She’s the one who should be comforted yet she tries to not let me feel like this, she’s really one of her kind.’_ Anna looks at Elsa as she comes a little closer to her while squeezing her hand.

 _‘It’s okay if I want to kiss those lips again..?’_ the younger woman thinks to herself and starts blushing when she notices the smirk on the blonde’s face.

“I spoke aloud..”

“Yep and it’s okay, I was thinking the same thing when I saw you earlier.” And then they share a gentle kiss, for a few seconds they brush their lips and when they move apart there’s a shy smile on both of them.

“I’m starting to like this..” Anna starts and Elsa agrees with her nodding.

“Me too, but I think we should talk about this.”

“Yeah, you’re right..” they smile at each other and stay like this looking at their eyes and with their finger intertwined. They think they could stay like this forever and enjoy this moment, then they’re interrupted by someone who enters the room.

 _‘At least we managed to kiss.’_ Elsa thinks and turns to see who is here now.

“Elsa! I need to talk with you!” Kristoff says before realising the presence of her cousin. “Oh, hey Anna.”

“Hi, so.. I think I leave you two with your work! I should change anyway.” She smiles at the two blondes and exits the room after waving at both.

Elsa looks a bit embarrassed at seeing the look her intern is giving her.

“So, Anna and you, uh?”

“Oh shut up!!” she exclaims and her cheeks are burning.

“You have to tell me everything, you know? That’s what friends are supposed to do.” He smirks. They could talk about love life, the crazy criminal can wait for now, he thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! So, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Kai will find out about Anna and Elsa, but not right now. Hans is back but not for long. Thanks a lot for your continue support, it's nice to see that this story is welcome. I hope you are comfortable about how it's going, maybe it's a bit 'slow' but I prefer not to rush on anything.
> 
> So, feel free to tell me your opinion about this chapter and have a nice day everyone!


	25. Chapter 25

After Elsa finishes telling him how her relationship with the redhead has developed, they remain silent for a moment, enjoying this brief quiet moment. The intern would like to talk about his patient but he doesn’t want to make his boss sad or angry or whatever, he has noticed how much Hans was pissed off to not seeing the woman and he doesn’t understand why, more importantly he keeps thinking what could have happened between the two. It hasn’t go unnoticed the guards and the handcuffs, he doesn’t have much information about his patient, only that he’s a convict and that he had an heart failure during the night.

He’s about to ask Elsa something when his pager sounds, he looks at its blue display and read _911 blue code P005._

“Shit..” he murmurs and stands up immediately. The woman just watches him and can only assume is something about his case, judging by his reaction it could only means that there’s an emergency with that asshole. She keeps staring him while he runs away from the Relax room, then she returns her attention to the cold mug in her hands. She shrugs her shoulders and decides to go and check her patients, she doesn’t even have any surgery booked for the day. _‘It’s going to be a looong day.’_

Kristoff reaches the room and finds some nurses on his patient doing the CPR, he walks closer and ask for them to move away while he takes the situation in his hands, he check his vitals on the pulse point on his neck and then asks for the defibrillator. 4 shocks later and the heartbeat returns and Kristoff gives a sigh of relief, his first patient is still alive. While the nurses cover the man chest, the doctor watches his. _‘This is the second heart failure in 6 hours.’_ Hans was waiting to do some X-Ray before his heart decided to not work. The blonde doesn’t understand what’s going on with him, the first episode happened at 5am while the guards were doing their rounds and now another one.

The officers are in the threshold of the room watching every moment, after everyone leave one of them walk closer to the bed and handcuff him again on each sides of the bed. Kristoff looks at them thinking it mustn’t be easy for them neither, he bets they know why he’s in jail and from how their gazes are full of hate and disgust he must have done something horrible.

The blonde walks away from the room and goes to his boss office, he hopes she’s in there. Once he’s in front of the door he takes a deep breath and knocks.

“Yes?” the voice is soft and barely audible.

“It’s me, Kristoff, may I come in?” he hears a loud sigh and he almost chuckles but something stops him from doing so. After he receives a positive answer he opens the door and closes it as soon as he’s inside.

“Do you need anything?” she asks. She’s laying on the couch and starts to sit.

“Actually.. I was thinking if you can tell me something.” he wants to approach the topic carefully since he doesn’t know anything about those two, for all he knows he could be a schoolmate or whatever.

“About what?” she invites him to sit down but she doesn’t meet his gaze.

“About Hans Southerisland.” She freezes and Kristoff notices it immediately.

“What about him..?” her face becomes paler any second that passes.

“He was asking for you, I know uncle Kai said you aren’t on this case, but I was wondering if you knew each other, I mean.. he knows you since he said your name.. maybe you could tell me something about his medical history, I don’t have anything about it.”

“We worked together at the Southerisland Hospital, but I don’t know him that well, I’m sorry. Now.. if you’d be kind enough to leave me, I have an awful headache and I was resting a bit.” She doesn’t want to act like the Ice Queen as everyone says, but she doesn’t want to talk about him right now with him. She just hopes that she hasn’t offended her intern in any way, but he seems to not be bother by the sudden change of her. Maybe using the excuse of the headache is a smart move.

“Sure, sorry. I hope it will get better.” He says genuinely and exits from the office leaving her alone.

He’s in the cafeteria with a sandwich in his hands looking to nowhere in particular while waiting for the results of his blood test, maybe he’ll have some answers. He doesn’t even have any medical record so he doesn’t know much about his medical history. He has noticed how Elsa reacted when he said the name of his patient, he wonders if there’s something she hasn’t told him. _‘Of course there’s something.. but what?’_ He’s in deep thoughts that he doesn’t realize that he has company.

“Kristopher? Hello?” in front of his eyes there’s a hand waving trying to catch his attention.

“It’s Kristoff.” He mumbles subconsciously. After some seconds he blinks and comes back in reality and his eyes finds familiar ones. “Oh hi, I thought you went home, what are you doing here?”

“I was going home indeed, but mom called me saying she has a last-minute meeting and she doesn’t know for how long she’ll be there, since she doesn’t trust me alone she said to stay at the hospital.. so.. here I am.” Anna smiles to her cousin and watches his unbitten sandwich.

He nods and finally brings his lunch to his mouth. “Have you eaten?” he says with his mouth full and Anna snorts.

“Not yet.. but I’ve brought something!“ She starts to unwrap her own sandwich from the plastic wrap.

“So, how are you doing? Elsa’s making you work hard?” she asks before biting her lunch.

“It could be better, but no. Actually, I’m on a case alone, uncle’s order.”

“What? Aren’t you working together anymore? What have I missed?” She’s confused, why her father would separate them?

“Oh, no no! We still work together, but just for this case I’m on my own. After this one I’ll rejoin her. I only know  she can’t be on this case, the reason is unknown to me.” He says more to himself than to his cousin, who’s looking at him with an arched eyebrow.

“Mh.. Well, there must be a reason.. Have you seen her?” she asks looking around in the cafeteria to see if she finds her.

“Yeah, earlier, she was in her office. She wasn’t feeling very well, an headache she said.”

“Oh..” her eyes go down to her hands.

“So, you two, uh?” he says trying to lighten up the mood and he seems to succeed in since his cousin starts blushing.

“Has she told you anything..?” she tries to keep her face from burning.

“Something about kisses.” He smirks but as soon as he notices how red her face is he bursts laughing. “Oh God, Anna breathe!”

“You.. I.. She...” she puffs and tries to collect herself. “She’s amazing.. I don’t even know where to start..” she confesses.

“Well, I’m happy for you two.” He smiles stopping his laughter. Then an idea comes up in his mind. “Oh.. hey, you could tell your mother you come home with me today.”

“Why would I tell her that?” she asks confused.

“Because you’ll go to Elsa’s place and I’ll cover for you. Then she could drive you home or I could pick you up, everything depends on what she says.” He smirks.

“But I’m not..” Anna stays quiet for a moment and then realisation hits her. “oh! I can see what you’re up to! Sneaky bastard.” She smirks and punches him on the shoulder and he pretends to be hurt.

“Go to her and ask her. I believe she’s still at her office, then let me know what she says.” She nods and stands up.

Anna keeps having an odd feeling in her belly while she gets closer to the blonde’s office. She’s a bit nervous, it’s like she’s asking her out for a date. When she finds the door she stays still in front of it. _‘Dr. Elsa Winters – Cardiology M.D.’_

A nurse looks at her in amusement and then speaks.

“You’re standing there for a while now, I hope you’re not bringing bad news. Good luck.” Anna stares at him and snorts, then she knocks four times lightly. She doesn’t even know if the other woman heard her.

“Who’s there?” a tired voice speaks.

“It’s me, An-” she doesn’t have to finish that the door opens immediately and her eyes meets hers. “-na.. Hi.”

“Hi, are you still here..?” she asks surprised and then she makes some steps backward to let her come in. After she’s in the room, the blonde closes the door and invites the younger woman to sit on the couch. “What are you doing here? I thought you would have be at home by now.” She watches at the clock on the wall.

“My mother is in a last-minute meeting and I have to wait for her.” She sits and starts to play with her fingers before adding. “I was thinking.. if you’re free, if you want.. I could come at your place.. I mean.. we could spend the evening together..” _‘Damn.. why can’t I just say the things straight! I had a nice speech on my mind, but no! My brain doesn’t want to work whenever I’m around her.. such a pathetic way to ask her out..’_

Elsa doesn’t know if she heard correctly, is Anna asking her out? She’s starting to blush just like the redhead in front of her.

“I finish at 6pm.” She says looking into her turquoise eyes.

“Is that..?” Anna whispers.

“Yes, we could spend some time together.” The blonde smiles and she comes closer to the redhead. _‘Why do I feel suddenly this need of her proximity..?’_

“Great! Then I should let my mom know to not pick me up..” the redhead says keeping her voice low looking at the woman in front of her with only a thought in mind. “.. I need Kristoff to cover me, I don’t think-”

“-you’re mother would like to know you’ll spend the evening with your doctor.” Elsa finishes the sentence. Anna is surprised to not hear bitterness in her voice. Then Elsa realises something. “Wait.. but you’d have to wait too much. It’s only half past 1pm now, maybe you should go back home.”

“I guess you’re right.. Kristoff and you finish at the same time, right?” the blonde nods. “You could pick me up at his place, if you drove at my place, my mom would hear your car and she would understand you’re not my cousin.”

“You’re right, his car doesn’t sound like mine. Well, then send me a text when you’re ready and I’ll come.” They both smile.

“Deal.” Anna looks at her for a bit longer. _‘Screw this.’_ She pulls her down into a kiss. At first it’s just a light contact between their lips but as soon as Elsa feels Anna’s hands moving from her cheeks to behind her neck she deepens the kiss and bites gently the redhead’s lower lip earning a soft moan from her.

Elsa’s hands are on the woman’s back gently rubbing it, then she feels Anna’s tongue asking for entrance which she grants happily. Their tongues caress each other, making a sweet dance that tries to communicate something to both of them.

The blonde is surprised by how the presence of this incredible woman makes her forget about everything. Just some moments earlier she was in deep thoughts about Hans, she received a message from Marshall telling her to try to keep calm and focus on other things and to avoid any contact with him. She can’t deny that she’s just doing so: she’s more than glad to have the redhead in her arms in her office, tasting her soft lips. She could even guess what she ate at lunch, but she’s more interested in the feelings that come from these kisses. She can feel her body warm up and a certain heat between her thighs, if it was up to her, she’d never stop this, but she has to. She doesn’t want to rush anything, despite her desire, her unusual incredible desire to take her right then and right now on this couch.

Sadly she ends the kiss but she keeps her forehead on Anna’s, breathing heavily.

“That was..”

“..amazing.” and Anna can’t agree more.

“I think.. you should go..” Elsa says between her breaths trying to not sound rude.

“Yeah.. after all you’re at work..” she cups the blonde’s face and smiles looking into those  now dark icy blue eyes. “..and we could continue this later.” she says with an arousing low voice.

Elsa swallows hard at the thought of them exploring each other. What she wouldn’t give to be at her home with her right now.

Anna stays some more minutes with her and then they say bye, promising to hear from the other later with a text. The blonde is now alone in her office, headache gone and with a dumb smile on her lips. She feels so alive whenever the redhead is near her and she can’t believe how that girl managed to change her. She’s never thought she’d have found herself making out with the daughter of her chief and ex-patient, but most importantly wanting to feel those hands and lips somewhere else, tasting her in different places, listening those moans.

 _‘She’ll be the death of me.’_ She tries to collect herself and to return to her work.

Anna has sent a message to Kristoff saying that she’ll be at his place when he finishes working and that Elsa will pick her up there. She’s in the waiting room of the hospital and watches outside the big windows remembering her encounter with the blonde doctor, she can’t help but smile and turns pink a little, she can still her taste on her lips and it’s the most beautiful feeling she’s ever experienced. Elsa has changed so much since their first meeting, she can’t help but feels proud of the blonde, she loves what they have now. For Anna this relationship isn’t something she takes lightly, she isn’t looking for sex, if she had wanted that she wouldn’t have spent so much time with the blonde.

She looks at her buzzing phone and notices a message from her mother that says she’ll be there in an hour.  She isn’t sure why, but she thinks that tonight will be a big emotional one.


	26. Chapter 26

“Anna, dear.. I’m so sorry you had to wait..” Gerda greets her daughter that is going inside the car, she puts the seatbelt on and smile at her mother.

“Don’t worry, I managed to keep me busy! Later I’ll go to Kristoff’s, would you mind to ride me there?”

“Not a problem, so how was your session?” the older woman keeps her eyes focused on the road and checks every now and then if there are some other vehicles who comes in the street from secondary streets.

“The doctor says I’m doing well and that I could finish soon, as long as I keep doing my home exercises.”

“Have you stayed with your cousin?”

“Yeah, during lunch, oh you know he’s having his first case alone! Dad let him working on this patience alone without the supervision of Elsa.” Her mother fights back her grin on hearing the familiar name, Anna seems to haven’t realised that she hasn’t addressed the blonde as Dr. Winters, but well, it’s not like the first time she calls her by her name.

“That’s great, that means he’s improving and that Elsa is doing a good job with him. I’m happy for him.”

They’re reaching their driveway and as soon as Gerda stops the car she sees with the corner of her eyes how Anna is ready to run out the vehicle and go inside. It’s not like it’s raining so she doesn’t understand why her daughter is so eager to be at home, maybe she’s tired and wants to relax and take a long bath?

“So, when you need to be to your cousin’s?” Gerda asks once she places her purse and car keys on the table.

“Mh.. about 6pm.” Anna says while she’s taking off her sweatshirt. “I’ll go to take a bath, I think I smell..”  and with that she disappears leaving her mother alone in the hallway.

Kristoff is called in the lab for the blood test results. He reads them quickly just to be sure they’re from his patient.

“Are you sure it’s from P005?” the woman on the other side of the bar nods at her and sends him a glare that seems to say _‘what do you think? I know what I’m doing.’_ Kristoff reads closely at the results and shakes his head in disbelief.

“The exams can’t be wrong..” he murmurs while walking to his uncle’s office and once he’s inside of the room he hands the papers to him and watches his reaction.

“Are they sure?”

“Yep..”

“Okay, I’ll call the chief of the prison and talk with him. You.. just treat him, and keep it by yourself.” The blonde nods and exits. His patient’s exams say that he’s a victim of poisoning, someone in jail managed to lay their hands on some kind of poison and put it on food or water. That kind of essence is particularly dangerous and toxic for humans, it’s weird to find it in a monitored place like a prison. Now everything is a bit more clear and Hans’ heart failures aren’t a mystery anymore. They have to wait for the lab to create the antidote and for now they’ll put him on dialysis in order to clear a bit his blood and prevent another episode. Kristoff is confused, why did someone want to poison him? What has he had done to be so hated? It must have been something really horrible and Elsa must know something about it, they clearly know each other, Hans keeps asking for her and keeps calling her in such bad ways.

“That bitch. She’ll pay for this! It’s all her fault, if she just kept her mouth shut!” Kristoff is outside his patient’s room and shakes his head _‘He keeps saying this! I’m tired of it.’_ The doctor comes inside and looks at the two officers who are sick tired just like he is.

“Mr. Southerisland, I’d like you to keep your voice down. You’re disturbing the other patients.” It’s not entirely true, since the room is placed in a certain distance from the others.

“I don’t care about other people, they can all die for all that matters. I want that fucking whore called Elsa Winters. I want her here. I know she works here and I want her to pay for what she has done.” One of the officers comes closer to Hans is ready to take out his taser.

“Keep quiet Southerisland. You’re nobody here and you can’t want anything. Shut the hell up and let the doctor do his job. Or do you want a little taste of this?” The officer points at the electric gun. “I’m sure you remember the feeling. So, be quiet.” Kristoff observes how Hans’ face changes at those words and the doctor tries to fight back the surprise: what all it would have taken was just showing him that weapon to shut him up. Incredible.

He explains how the dialysis works and then leaves the three alone.

“Kristoff? Is everything okay? You seem tired.” Elsa notices the young man in one of the chair in the waiting room.

“Ehy, yeah.. well my patient is a piece of work. He keeps shouting, cursing.. Thank god the officers know how to shut him up. Honestly I can’t believe how you managed to work with him.” he says without thinking and he looks apologetically at her, he hasn’t any idea of what happened to them, Hans keeps saying that she has done something horrible to him and she has to pay, but it doesn’t feel right, after all he’s the one in jail and she doesn’t seem a person who’s capable of doing horrible things. Well, he knows that she’s difficult to handle, at least at first, but now that he knows her better he doesn’t believe in what others say about her. She’s a good and nice person who doesn’t deserve those words.

“I’ve survived for a year then I.. I was transferred here.” She just wants to avoid the topic. “So, have you talked with Anna?”

“Yeah, she sent me a message saying she’ll be at my place around 6pm. Do you have something in mind for your evening?” he asks clearly aware of the fact that she doesn’t want to talk about his patient anymore.

“I could have some ideas, what about you?” she looks somewhere specific and Kristoff catches the hint immediately.

“I’ll let you know how it will go, if you do the same.” He smirks and offers her his hand to make the deal.

“Okay.” She takes it without thinking twice.

It’s 5pm and Anna finally decides to come out her room, she checks her parents’ room to see if her mother is there napping but she’s not. Once she reaches the kitchen she finds her preparing some hot water.

“Anna! Here you are, I’m making some tea, do you want some?” the redhead just nods her head and sits next the kitchen table.

Her mother seems at peace whenever she’s in this room, she remembers when she was little that Gerda used to sings while cooking or cleaning, but now she doesn’t do that anymore and if Anna has to be honest with herself she misses it. When she was old enough to be able to sing in an acceptable way she used to sing along her mother and her father would just stay there listening to his two women of his life.

“Mom, I miss you singing..” Anna admits at Gerda.

“My voice isn’t the one I used to have, dear. Yours is way better than mine, you could sing for both of us.” She smiles at her daughter and pours the hot water in two mugs on the table, she handles a box where there are the bags of tea to choose. Anna picks the black lemon tea bag and puts it in the mug and waits for a few minutes.

“Yeah, but I still miss those times..” Anna murmurs sniffing the nice hot lemon smell coming from the water under her nose.

“At Christmas we’ll sing, it will be our present for your father, speaking of which.. you need to go and find one, you always end to buy one some days before Christmas.” Anna flushes a bit and lets out a sheepish smile.

“Right.. Maybe the next week I could go with Kristoff to do some shopping, I’ll try to be in time this year!”

“Speaking of being in time.. shouldn’t you go and finish to prepare yourself? I don’t think you’ll go to your cousin house like _that_.” Her daughter is wearing an old pyjama, since she was tired after the bath she decided to take a little nap. Anna looks down at herself and becomes aware of her situation and the hour, she doesn’t have that much of time.

Kristoff is at home and keeps checking his watch, it’s 6:05pm and his cousin should arrive any time by now. He wonders how her evening will go, knowing Anna, she’ll be happy for the entire time, just being near Elsa makes her all smiley.

 _‘Speaking of the devil..’_ the doorbell rings and he leaves the living room to go and greet his cousin, when he opens the front door his aunt is waving at him.

“Hi Kristoff!! Have fun you too.” After the redhead is next him her mother leaves the driveway and drives back her home.

“So, are you ready?” Kristoff smiles at his cousin and shows her to come inside.

“Yes!” she says taking out her phone from the pocket of her coat and opens a new message.

_“Elsa! I’m at my cousin’s, take your time if you need to. Kisses.”_

“Tell me, what are you going to do this evening here all alone?” Anna asks looking at his house, it’s clearer than the usual and that’s suspicious.

“Mh, I won’t be that alone, you know? I might have some plans.” He says trying to drop the topic, he would like to talk about it with her but he’s a bit nervous about his evening and he prefers to not show it.

“Aaall right..!” She knows he’s hiding something but chooses to not meddle in too much. She feels her phone buzzes and take it out and a smile comes immediately.

_“I’ll be there in 10.”_

“She’s on her way, isn’t she?” Kristoff looks at her phone and stays in his feet near the door.

“Yep, I can’t wait to see her.”

“Well, you’ll be together for some hours so.. have fun and enjoy each other’s company. I’m happy for you two.” He’s thinking about when his cousin was a little girl and the two of them were talking about the future and how they would have liked their life to be, they made a deal which consisted in never leaving and staying together in a way or in another. When his little brother was born, Anna was happy to have another cousin, even if to her they are more like brothers and the three of them would do anything for each other.

“Thanks, it means a lot to me..” she goes to hug him and after his arms are around her, she gives a quick peck on his check and giggles. “I always trick you.”

“Yeah, keep believing it.” He shakes his head and pats her back of the shoulder.

Just like a Swiss watch, Elsa arrives at Kristoff’s place after 10minutes after her text.

“Good evening sir, I’m here to pick up someone special.” She says smirking at the younger man.

“Good evening to you, she’ll be here in a moment. Enjoy yourselves.” He replies. Soon enough Anna appears at the threshold and smiles at the other woman.

“Hi.”

“Hi, ready?” Elsa offers her arm to her, which is quickly grabbed, and walks her to the car after saying bye to Kristoff.

The doctor opens the door to her date, once they’re both inside the vehicle Anna faces the blonde with that smile of her and leans forward, Elsa catches the hint and moves forward too to let their lips meet. They share a quick yet pleasant kiss and after putting the seatbelts on the blonde starts the engine and drives away heading to her home.

Once they reach the front door and Elsa opens the door, Anna walks in and looks around with her mouth open.

“I believe I own you a pizza evening, am I wrong?” she points at the table where just the day before they spent an evening together with the others. There are some candles lighted up and then Anna notices the brochures on the table.

“I wanted to make a homemade pizza, but I didn’t have enough time and I honestly couldn’t wait to see you.. so..” she hands her some of the papers.

“Don’t worry, maybe another time.” She smiles and reads the brochures. “So.. you’ll make me taste your favourite one, right?” she asks hopeful.

“Of course! Choose which pizza you want and then I’ll make the order.”

The pizzas arrives in time and they decides to shares half of each with the other, so Elsa gives half of her vegetarian to Anna and she does the same with her, shrimp and arugula. At first the redhead is a bit skeptic that she’ll like that kind of pizza but when she takes the first bite of that slice she quickly changes her mind. She remains faithful to her Four Seasons, but even this one isn’t that bad.

“I’m glad you like it, I have to say I was a bit afraid you wouldn’t have..” she says once they’re on the couch, they both have a glass of wine with them and they watch at Etta as she plays with an old stuffed animal of Elsa.

“I start to think I like everything you like..” Anna says under her breath, she puts her glass on the table in front of them and leans closer to the blonde, she wants to feel her nearer, she needs to feel her warmth. Her head is on Elsa’s chest and she’s able to hear the other woman’s heartbeat which is starting to beat faster. The blonde takes away her glass too and places her right hand on her head and she begins caressing the locks of red hair.

“The first time I’ve seen you in the cafeteria I thought you were nuisance and then I started to be with you every day for a while and I gradually changed my mind. A part of me kept thinking you were a bit of a pain in the ass, but another part, a large part of me began to get used to you. I decided to listen to the latter and I started to want to get to know you better and I’m happy to have made that decision.” Elsa confesses while her hand keeps playing in the hair of the younger woman. Anna listens carefully to each words and can’t help but smile, it’s something she’s used to do now in the blonde’s presence. One of her hand is placed on Elsa’s abdomen and starts to caress it gently unconsciously.

“For me, it was a bit different, as I said to your cousin, I’ve thought you were special and different from everyone else since the beginning.. I wanted to be able to know you, to see this side of you, everyone says you’re an _Ice Queen_ , but everything I see? It’s a wonderful kind woman, who isn’t that _cold_. I enjoy feeling your warmth on my skin and if I have to choose, I’d stay next to you and keep you as my personal radiator.” _‘Really Anna? This is an important conversation and you finish your sentence with a horrible joke..? You’re lucky if she doesn’t leave you now.’_ The redhead’s thoughts are interrupted by a giggle coming from the blonde and Anna’s heart almost melts. Then she feels Elsa’s left hand on her chin, she understands immediately what the other woman isn’t saying out loud and she raises her head. She moves closer to Elsa’s lips and gently brushes them with her own. “If I’m able to see you like this, then I’m more than happy to be the one to have this privilege.” They connect their lips and shares a meaningful kiss. It’s incredible how much a kiss can say without the two parts involved speak. The kiss escalates quickly and when their tongues starts playing with each other, Anna’s hand begins tracing some patterns on Elsa’s abdomen, still covered by the clothes, but then the redhead’s hand goes under the shirt by its own accord and as soon as it moves a little down on the blonde’s skin Anna notices something. She ends the kiss when she feels Elsa reaches her hand on her abdomen stopping her movements.

“Anna..” the blonde says with a trembling in her voice.

“What’s this?” Anna asks confused.


	27. Chapter 27

The words don’t come from Elsa’s mouth, she just looks at that hand on her abdomen. _‘Damn.. what do I  do now..? Should I tell her something, the truth or..?’_ she swallows hard and takes some breathes before trying to speak.

“Anna..” she repeats the name of the younger woman who is looking at where her limb is, there’s a swollen scar and to her it’s seems like it’s healing slowly and it’s a big one.

“What’s this?” She asks confused, she truly is. “When did you hurt yourself?” _was it recently?_

“A while ago.. it’s nothing, really..” The blonde doesn’t know how to deal with this situation, nobody knows about it except for Marshall and he had to know only because he is her layer and guardian, even if it doesn’t matter that much now that she’s an adult with her own house, job and money to provide to herself.

“It seems serious, not _nothing_..” Anna says with a whisper and the tips of her fingers starts brushing lightly that skin and that action makes jolts a little the older woman. “Did I hurt you?” she asks noticing the reaction of the blonde.

“No, it was unexpected.. it doesn’t hurt anymore.” She’s debating with herself to tell or not Anna. She doesn’t know if it could be right to tell her _that_ now. _‘Well, maybe not that, that..’_

“Would you tell me what happened..?” she takes the blonde’s hand between hers and lifts her gaze up to meet the other woman’s eyes. There’s worry, pain and fear in those icy blue eyes and Anna is starting to reconsider what she has just proposed, if it is that painful for doctor maybe it’s better to not ask and to wait when she’s ready, but Elsa stops her before she speaks again.

“It happened before I arrived at the Arendelle General Hospital, before I sent the paper to your father to apply for the job.” The blonde decides to tell her how she get it, but she is not ready to tell her _everything_ about that awful period. “I was at my night shift and when I was making a walk to stretch my legs.. I, listen I should warn you, it was pretty bad, if you don’t want to hear of it I won’t tell you.” She needs to not scare her, she wants Anna to be safe even from her past, even if she doesn’t understand very well why she wants to keep her oblivious of those eventful moments in her life.

Anna thinks about that for a few seconds before speaking again, she’s curious after all, it’s in her character. “If it’s not too painful to you.. I’d like to know everything about you, but at your time, I don’t want to force you.” Elsa gives her a soft smile at her words, she’s so caring that makes the blonde warms with something she hasn’t felt for a while now.

“I won’t go in the details, as I said it was pretty bad.. while I was walking I noticed that someone was in trouble and I went to help them. I managed to make them leave but I couldn’t.. I tried to fight and leave as well but I wasn’t that lucky, I got stabbed by a scalpel several times..I was left alone when the attacker thought I was going to die and before I lost my consciousness I managed to call for some help.”  The blonde doesn’t have the courage to keep her eyes on the redhead’s ones, instead she focuses on their hands which are linked together.

Anna stays quiet for a while, she can’t believe that that wonderful woman in front of her was a victim of such a cruel event, how could someone be so bad, evil? She doesn’t really know in what kind of trouble that _person_ was but she has a feeling it’s better to not know it right now. And in this exactly moment the redhead feels she needs to be closer to Elsa, she needs her to know she is there for her no matter what and she feels anger, a lot of anger to whoever did that. It’s like after that confession Anna has this kind of newfound protectiveness toward her.

“I am so sorry..” the redhead manages to say after a pause that seems to be lasted for too long.

“Don’t be.. it’s not your fault.” Elsa answers trying to let out a smile and finally meets Anna’s eyes. The blonde is a bit surprised by what she’s seeing in those turquoises pearls: care. The most important thing she notices is that there isn’t any kind of pity on Anna’s face and that means a lot to her, because for once she isn’t treated like a broken child, she isn’t treated like someone who only needs help and comfort.

“I’d punch whoever did this in the face.” She declares nodding her head without an apparent reason.

“Well, if it is for any kind of comfort, the responsible is paying the price for this.” Elsa takes Anna’s hand on her scar in order to make it clear, then she leans forward and kiss Anna’s forehead, that action makes the redhead sighs and closes her eyes as soon as she feels the blonde’s arms are embracing her, she just wants to enjoy the moment and she could stay like this forever. Maybe she will.

“Thanks for telling me, by the way..” Anna speaks softly after some minutes of that peaceful hug. She raises her head to meet Elsa’s eyes and smiles at the softness she finds in them, even if it’s a topic pretty delicate to the blonde, she manages to sense the relief of talking about that with someone else, and she’ll be eternally grateful to her for letting her know it.

Anna leans forward and places gently her lips on Elsa’s ones, she’s a little taken back but she responds to the kiss almost immediately.

 _‘She is staying with me even after what I told her..’_ Elsa tries to fight back all those overwhelming emotions and keeps close the other woman to her own body. They stay like that for a while, kissing and sharing without words mutual feelings, when their tongues find each other they begin to let out soft moans. Anna’s hand is still on the scar while the other one is on Elsa’s cheek rubbing it slowly with her thumb. Elsa’s hands are on Anna’s back, keeping her close, she isn’t sure why but she _needs_ to feel the younger woman near.

Anna ends for a moment the kiss making Elsa whimpers inside but as soon as she understands what’s going on the blonde smirks. The redhead sits on her lap and returns kissing her, this time her attention is on Elsa’s neck, Anna’s lips stays on the blonde’s pulse point and she bites it gently a few times. The young doctor can’t help but let out content sighs from that lovely touch of those warm wet lips and her hands go down Anna’s back and find her hips,  squeezing them gently. Anna’s mouth starts to make its way down on Elsa’s chest, the woman is still wearing her shirt and it blocks a bit the way for the redhead, so she starts unbuttoning the clothing but as soon as the first button is done she stops for a second caressing the now exposed skin.

“Is it okay for you..?” Anna asks with a low voice that makes the blonde’s belly flutter. Elsa opens her eyes slowly and she’s greeted by those now dark eyes of the other woman in front of her on her lap. The blonde would like to say that a part of her says it feels a bit rushed and early, but she decides to don’t listen to that thought and focusing on the beautiful person she has there.

“As soon as you’re here with me, it’s more than okay.” Elsa places a long kiss on Anna’s lips, making her moans after not long and she restart undoing the shirt of the blonde below her. The blonde’s hands, that are still on the redhead’s hips, begins to go up under her clothing. Elsa makes travel slowly her fingers on the woman’s bare back and she smirks under her lips when she feels the goosebumps on Anna’s skin.

Once Anna manages to unbuttoning the blonde’s shirt, she takes it off and ends the kiss to enjoy the amazing view she has right now in front of her eyes which begin to scan every single inch of the now exposed skin. At the sight of those breasts and the nipples that tries to make their presences clear under the black silk bra Anna’s mouth becomes dry and she finds herself staring and speechless at the beauty of the blonde. Anna doesn’t manages to let not a single word and at that reaction Elsa can’t help but keep smirking, she’s starting to like this side of the redhead.

“Do you like what you’re seeing, dear?” the blonde puts some room between the two of them to give Anna more to appreciate.

“…yeah… wow…” the younger woman manages to say only those sort of words and her right hand slowly reaches the breast. It’s soft under her touch and she tries to fight the urge to gently squeeze it, but then she feels the blonde’s hand on hers and hears something from Elsa.

“If you want to… you can touch it even without this..” she looks at her bra and squeeze lightly her hand on the redhead’s one and they both let out a moan for different reasons: Elsa, because of the feeling of having her breast squeezed by that wonderful warm hand; Anna, because she could spend hours enjoying the other woman’s body. When Anna returns to her senses she leans closer to Elsa’s neck and start kissing it, going down, while her hands start undoing the bra.

At the same time Elsa’s hands return to the redhead’s back and while they’re going up the blonde notices something pretty interesting.

“Oh.. that’s interesting..” Anna realises to what Elsa is referring and she smirks.

“I’ll be totally honest with you.. I didn’t except this turn of the events for this evening,” she takes off the black bra and now she can see clearly those erect nipples that are greeting her. “even if I have to say.. I was waiting for this moment to come.” Her fingers walks slowly on the exposed breast touching lightly the nipples, making the blonde sighs loudly. “I wanted to wait for you to be ready, for the right moment.. I don’t want to do anything you don’t want to.” Elsa waits for the redhead to look at her in the eyes and smiles gently at her.

“It may be a little soon, but I become aware of one thing in these past few days and that is I want _you_. I want _us_ ,” she keeps looking at those breathtaking turquoise eyes “and assuming it’s a mutual feeling, I think that the right moment is right now. Life is too short, and I don’t want to waste anymore time without you in my life. You managed to make my life brighter, before you came into my life, everything was dark and colorless, now? There’s light everywhere, and that’s all because of you.” Anna’s eyes are starting to be filled with tears because of all the emotions she’s feeling in that moment. She’s still on Elsa’s lap with her hands on her breasts when the blonde finishes her speech, it’s a bit weird having this kind of conversation when one of them is half naked, but that doesn’t matter much to the both of them.

“That’s..” she tries to find the right words, but nothing comes in her mind. “I honestly don’t know how to reply to that.. I just want to thank you and show you how much you mean to me.” She leaves momentarily the blonde’s chest and puts her arms behind Elsa’s neck and she leans closer to her lips. “You mean a lot much than this.” and she kisses those soft lips. “There are no words to express myself right now, let me show you.” Her thumb gently touches the blonde’s bottom lip and Elsa just nods at her keeping her hands on her bare back, while the redhead’s attention returns to her cleavage.

Anna starts to give some kisses along the way to those gorgeous breasts earning wonderful sounds from the blonde. When she arrives at her destination she smiles at herself and takes the right nipple in her mouth moving in circle her tongue. Elsa bites her bottom lip trying to suppress a moan. It has been a long time since she’s been in such an intimate situation with somebody else and she’s enjoying every single moment of it. While Anna keeps licking the erect and sensitive nipple her right hand begins to go down to Elsa’s waist and starts to unbuttoning the jeans she’s wearing. In the meantime her left hand plays with  the other nipple that is looking for some attentions too. Anna’s hand unzips the jeans and goes inside, caressing gently the area covered in what she thinks it’s silk panties and soon enough when her fingers slips down she smirks.

“Oh my.. you’re so wet..” she says before biting gently the blonde’s nipple. Elsa lets out a loud moan and tries to catch her breath.

“Only for you..”

Anna bites her lip while she puts her hand inside the panties of the blonde. With two fingers she begins to make some circles around the clit and she feels how much it’s becoming hard with each movement. Anna smiles hearing the other woman panting and she feels somehow proud since she’s the reason.

“I wonder if you’re ready for me..” she feels the warmth coming from Elsa’s core and she just can’t wait to know how it is to feel her inner walls around her fingers.

“Why don’t you go and find out..?” the blonde is craving for the anticipation. Anna doesn’t wait for being told a twice and her middle finger slips inside the blonde. Elsa moans loud with pleasure that wonderful sensation. Anna’s mouth stays open as she realises how much wetness there is. Her finger stays still for some seconds to let the blonde adjust to the intrusion. Once she seems to be ready she begins to thrust deeper her finger and the redhead thinks she has found her new favorite melody hearing Elsa.

“God.. Anna!!” the blonde bites her lip as she feels another finger comes inside her and at the same time her nipple is being sucked by that amazing mouth of Anna’s. While the redhead keeps with her thrusting she puts her thumb on the clit to continue to make some circles on it, in order to give the blonde as much as pleasure she can.

Having Anna inside her is something Elsa doesn’t know how to describe, she feels complete, it’s like they’re as one. The blonde knows that her heartbeat is going crazy just like her mind, every thrust brings Elsa close to the climax, she wants this to never end, but she feels the need for release, she doesn’t even have the control on her tongue to beg Anna for giving it to her but she doesn’t need to tell her. She knows it by herself. The redhead pushes her fingers harder and deeper, fully aware that the meaning of the walls starting to clench is that the blonde is reaching her orgasm.

“Elsa..” she whispers her. “..come for me.”

Elsa feels her body losing control and she lets out a cry of totally pleasure.

“ _Anna!!_ ”

The redhead smiles at her and gives her a gentle kiss on her lips and let her forehead rest on Elsa’s. The blonde stays out for a few with her eyes close and breathing hard. When she returns to the living world she looks at the woman in front of her and they realise that they’re still on the couch with the redhead on her legs. Even if the position could seem uncomfortable it’s not so true.

“Anna.. you’re.. you’re amazing..” she says quietly and she caresses her cheek.

“No, you are..” the younger woman watches carefully the blonde’s eyes and sees what’s inside. _‘Damn..I’m falling hard for you..’_

“I’m falling hard for you too..” the doctor says kissing Anna’s nose. “..and I think you’re wearing too much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!! I am terribly sorry for the long wait.. I had a lot of things going on between personal issues and exams at the university.. this chapter was ready for a while but I totally forgot to update, I am really sorry.. I don't know when the next chapter will be online, hopefully soon..   
> Have a nice day everyone!


	28. Chapter 28

The two girl in love are lying on the bed, catching their breaths, wrapped up in harmonious hug which seems to make them as one. They have spent the rest of the evening showing how much they care for the other, how much they want to be together in a more intimate way, sharing delicate touches, nice words, sweet kisses, significant looks. It's like it's the right choice, being there, together like this, as if anything else matters and if it was up to them, they would stay still like this forever, in this peaceful and private moment, without any kind of worry.

Being able to be at ease with another person after everything Elsa's been through, makes her feeling odd at the same time and terribly glad to be able to expose herself, in every aspect, to someone else. Anna's reaction surprised her in a positive way, and that's true, she didn't tell the redhead all the story, but for now that's okay. She knows one day Anna'll be aware of what happened for real and the blonde hopes that when it happens nothing will change between the two of them, and she has a kind of presentiment that calms her, she knows deep inside that everything will be fine and that if needed, they'll deal everything together as it comes.

On the other side, from time to time Anna has the feeling the blonde is keeping something relevant from her, despite this she tries to keep silent that part of her and to enjoy the moment as much as possible. She keeps running the events of the evening in her mind and she can't stop smiling like a teenager sickly in love.

Her head is lying on the blonde's chest, she listens her stable heartbeat, a bit faster than usual, her breaths, and if it wasn't that she has to go back to her home, she'd love stay for the night in that position.

"You'll be my pillow.." the younger woman says quietly, if it is supposed to be heard, they don't know.

"Mh? Ah yes? Well, you are a great blanket.."

"..so we make a bed together?" Anna smiles at her fun joke she believes she made, while the other woman is uncertain on how to react, she pretend to have not heard and simply she keeps her closer in order to feel her nearer, mostly because she wants to avoid to embarrass her for her  _comedy_.

"I'd like to stay a bit longer.." she confesses while she feels the doctor's fingers on her hair moving slowly relaxing her.

"..but you have to go.." Elsa finishes the redhead's phrase, knowing well what time is it. "Kristoff should bring you home, right?" she feels her nods on her own chest. "Okay.. then in a little while I'll send him a message to see how ready he is.." reluctantly the two stand up and start to look for their clothes, then Anna is about to reach for t-shirt when she realises it isn't how she left it: Etta put it on and now it's scampering around in the house recklessly.

"No! Etta, come here!" Give me my t-shirt back!" the redhead starts chasing the cat, but it doesn't want to be taken, clothing aside, the feline doesn't have any agility's issue. Elsa watches everything with a confused and amused look, when she notices Etta is running toward her, she kneels and catches the pet that at first it makes resistance since it was caught by surprise, but as soon as it realises that everything is okay, the cat calm herself down and let her owner hold her.

"What a brat you are.." the blonde comments starting to take off the t-shirt and gives it to the owner. "Here."

"Thanks, next time.. we close the door.." she suggests while she finishes to dress herself.

Once they are both decent, Elsa composes the text to send to Kristoff, asking him when they can go to him, in the meantime Anna observes the blonde, who's sitting on the edge of the bed with a never-ending regal posture, it's like she grew up in a castle, surrounding by butlers, nobles, and all that. On the contrary, the redhead isn't worthy to be at her presence, it's like she's just a member of the middle class. Still, there she is, two people so different, yet so alike, brought together by such a simple and at the same time complex emotion. Funny life, when you least expect it something happen that change completely everything.

"You're amazing.." Anna walks closer to the blond and looks for her eyes. "I still can't believe to be here.. with you." She kneels down putting herself in front of the other woman and she takes away her phone. "Maybe I already said this.. but I'm really glad for that fall." She smiles.

"To be honest, I'm glad too." Elsa leans nearer the redhead's face and she smiles her back. "I had the chance to meet a wonderful person." They make the distance between them disappear sharing a kiss, a gentle caress of their lips, a soft and sweet meeting that leads to a long embrace. They have spent the entire evening showing and sharing emotions and even a simple gesture like this has a great meaning for the two of them. Acceptance, gratitude, affection, love.

The moment is interrupted by the ringtone of the blonde's phone.

"Kristoff.." Anna says having an idea of what it is about.

"Yep, it's time to go."

They're in the driveway of the other doctor's house, waiting for him to arrive and bring his cousin at her home. During the wait the couple hold their hands, letting their fingers play with each others, without speaking. They hear the sound of a key from the front door.

"Ehy! I hope you haven't wait too long, how did it go?" Kristoff smiles at the two and walks closer to greet them.

"All well, what about you?" the cousin asks hugging him.

"Good good, okay.. so, we go? It's getting late." The blonde go for open his care and waits for the redhead.

"I text you once I'm home, okay? Thanks for the evening." They hug one more time and Anna gives her a quick peck on the blonde's cheek.

"Thank to you." Elsa replies letting her go to her cousin. "Good night Kristoff! See you tomorrow at work, no delays!"

"I'll see what I can do, night to you too!" and with that the two cousins enters in the car and leave, not after long she does the same.

This night the young surgeon will sleep with a smile imprinted in her face, because she had the possibility to confirm that every cloud has a silver lining, she might have done a rough and tormented past, but that hasn't stopped her to find happiness, to find that sun's ray after the storm. She knows only that now she wants this moment to last, she likes being this calm, happy with herself.

In the home back drive, Anna and Kristoff don't talk much, the boy has tried to have some information about the evening, but his cousin hasn't left anything to work with, the morning after he will ask a lot of question to his blonde boss. Once they reach the redhead's house, they exchange their goodnights and Anna walks in trying to not make a sound, not knowing if her parents are still awake.

But just like the other time, her mother is waiting for her.

"Anna, welcome back!" Gerda goes and hugs her daughter who replies immediately the gesture.

"Dad's sleeping? How was your evening? Have you done anything different?" they sit down in the kitchen and start chatting, in the meantime the redhead takes her phone to send a quick message to Elsa.

"Well.. after dinner we've watched a bit of television, then your father was tired and he went to sleep early." She takes out two glasses and a bottle of water and she puts them on the table before joining her daughter sitting next to her. "Tell me, how did it go? What did you do?"

"Us?" Anna hasn't thought about it, she told her mother she would have went to her cousin, but she doesn't know what to tell her parents after. "We ate pizza, chatting, we had fun."  _'It's better be close to the reality.'_

"That's all?" the woman watches her carefully as if she knows that something is missing. "Were only you two?" Gerda puts her hand on her mouth and with her index she touches the tip of her nose.

"Yes, why?" she takes the glass and starts drinking, she is something like nervous and she has the feeling her mother is suspecting something, she feels it deep inside her bones.

"No nothing, I was wondering.. how is it going with that lady doctor?" If Anna haven't already swallowed now she would have chocked with the water, not because she's surprised by the question, but because she doesn't know what to say, after all their relationship is growing always more and keeping it hidden is making her life a bit harder, mostly because she'd like to talk about it with her mother, but she doesn't know how she would react and if and how their relationship would change.

"Everything's great, she's getting used to the city, it's nice spending time with her." The redhead doesn't even know if Elsa would like to let it know, maybe it's too soon, but after all she met some member of her family and, okay, even if she wasn't introduced as her girlfriend, it's something and she thinks that Punzy suspects something. Or it's just a crazy game of her mind that makes her believe that everyone who see them together automatically imagine that they're a couple.

"I'm happy about it, I like her, she seems such a nice person and I'm sure you like her too.. and a lot." Her mother gives her a lovely smile.

_'_ _Okay, it seems she knows.. or suspects.. what do I do? To tell or not to tell? Oh God.. what do I do!? In what I got myself into..? I should go to sleep, yes.. I'll take this excuse since tomorrow I have my session! Yes, yes.. it seems like a good plan to me, now I stand up.. and I tell her it was nice but I have to go, something like that old bear and moon's song I watched on television when I was little-'_

"Anna.." Gerda takes her daughter's hand and tries to calm her down, she knows her well and understands immediately when she's under pressure and she has her mind running. "Listen, you can talk with me about anything you want to, when and if you feel like to, I'm always here, remember it. I love you." The redhead looks at her a bit confused.

"Mom..?" she can't help it and her eyes start getting wet. "You know…?"

"Yes, I know.. or at least I suspected for a long time, I've always waited for you to be ready to tell me." She keeps smiling at her trying to make her understand that she's not faking to be supportive.

"I've always been afraid to tell you.. I didn't know how you would have reacted, what you would have said, what would have happened to us.. I've always wanted to tell you, especially in this last period." A few tears start to fall down those turquoise eyes.

"I thought I managed to make you think you could tell me anything and that nothing would happen.. oh well, if it's about something bad, well.. you know, there are consequences, but this? This is not the case."

"Mom.."

"It's alright, honey. Nothing change, you still are my little girl. My daughter." And with that Anna can't hold it back anymore and burst out in a cry and immediately she's taken by those strong arm that belongs to her mother, and it's like a really heavy burden was taken away from her, it's like she's able to breathe again now. Nothing explicit has been told yet, but both of the two Summers' women know really well what they are talking about, and for the young redhead knowing her mother is such supportive and reassure her that nothing will change is really important and she's glad about it. This is a very emotional evening for Anna and this cry is a lot liberating.

After some moments the redhead seems to pull herself together, so Gerda handles her a napkin.

"So.. would you feel to tell me how your evening really went and how it is going between you two?"

After tears what's nice? A nice laugh. So the redhead starts to laugh and tell her mother for real what happened, how she realised she felt something more than a simple friendship towards the doctor and how the two dealt the situation, how much they tried to understand what was right to do or not to do, how to behave in the hospital without letting know anyone and how to be able to not give problems to the blonde at her workplace. While the speech Gerda listens interested, without interrupting her daughter, who is clearly happy and glad to be finally able to tell this thing to her.

"Mom, how did you understand I wasn't at Kristoff's today..?" asks at a certain point.

"Easy, that's not your perfume, my daughter." Affirm grinning and Anna jus blushes.

"Ah.. right." Of course when she told how the evening went, she omitted certain details, because she doesn't think it's the right moment to share  _them_ , and it's because she doesn't believe her mother is ready and willing to hear those thing too. "For how long do you know it?"

"About Elsa and you?" Anna shakes her head. "Ah, well.. I think.. always. I remember you made up those crushes on boys, when in reality you liked girls." Gerda takes a moment for herself and then start to talk again. "At first it wasn't easy, not because I didn't accept it, I admit it took me a while to comprehend the situation and to realise it wasn't your fault, I read and found information, I talked with other parents and I understood. There's nothing wrong, then I saw you growing up, day after day, month after month, year after year.. and look at you, you've become such a wonderful young woman who knows what she wants and isn't afraid to fight for what she believes it's right. I've always been proud of you, well that's true.. you've always been such a klutz, but you took it from your father, what can we do about that?" both of them laugh. "However, everything I've always wanted and always will, is to know you're happy with yourself, with us and with others. And if Elsa makes you happy, then it's okay for me, I told you, I like her as a person and I think she's not only a great surgeon but a person with a noble heart. Plus, she seems a lot more calm than you, maybe she could help you to slow down a bit and be more careful." She points at the healed leg.

The two of them look at each other in silence for a bit.

"Thanks mom, I love you too.."

"I know and don't worry about your father, we'll find a way to tell him." they smile and after another hug they exchange the goodnight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I really hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you really for your patience! I don't know how much it will take for the new chapter to be ready, hopefully not too long.. but I'm pretty busy in these days with life.. 
> 
> Have a nice day everyone!
> 
> Christy


	29. Chapter 29

 

Anna, Kristoff, Rapunzel, Flynn and Marshall are in Elsa’s house to spend the day all together. At the beginning they thought in going to make a walk at the lake but as soon as they arrived there, it began raining and so they decided to consider the other option: the masterchef-like-challenge. That morning Elsa made a round of call, remembering Anna’s proposition of the last evening, it is Friday, that means that the day after this her cousin and her fiancé will come back at their home.

“So, how is life treating you here?” Kristoff asks the couple next to him,  in the living room and once in a while peeking into the two girls who are cooking.

“Good, we are enjoying a bit of relax, luckily, I fixed some business issues yesterday and now we think only to relax before leaving and to see who cooks better!” Punzy answers patting gently Etta’s back.

“I’m just glad to eat free at your cousin’s place..” Flynn smiles noticing the knowing blonde’s look in front of him. On the other side, Marshall stays quiet, no one knows if it is because he does not have anything to say, if he is thinking about something or if he is preparing himself for the challenge.

The two young women doesn’t know what the others are talking about in the living room, not that they care particularly. Elsa has opted for a mixed salad, while Anna takes care of the filled chicken and roasted potatoes. At the beginning they had in mind to make the starter, the main course, the second course and maybe go out and have the dessert ou all together in the hope that the weather would be better. But then they changed idea, they haven’t taken the challenge seriously, actually it is like they have totally forgot it. They are next to one other,  the blonde is cutting some tomatoes in wedges in order to add them at the leaves of salad, while the redhead is peeling the potatoes. There are moments of chats alternating moment of silence, not the embarrassing one, but the pleasant one, the one which all it takes is a look and suddenly everything is understood.

“It’s nice.. isn’t it?” The younger asks peeling the umpteenth potato.

“Mh?” The doctor is busy finding where the cucumbers and the carrots are in the fridge.

“Being here, together, doing this.. cooking.. it feels like-”

“-domestic.. I like it, you know? It’s like it is right to be like this, and the.. to have a hand here it’s well welcome.” The blonde smiles while pointing with her glance at the last cleaned potato that is added to the others, ready to be cut.

“I can see that, I like cooking in company, whenever I can I help mom to make lunch or dinner.. you know, when I was little I loved staying in the kitchen with her because that was the time when she sang and I’ve always loved her voice, you should listen at her.. she has a beautiful voice, she’s the reason why I have this passion for the sing.” Hearing and saying those words out loud make Anna nostalgic, while the only thing Elsa has in mind is that time when she listened at the redhead singing _Just The Way You Are_ in the hospital, if she says her mother has a beautiful voice, that means it’s a family trait. At the sudden the doctor imagine a Dr. Summers singing out in the living room dressed like a rock-doctor and it wouldn’t take much to lose a finger at the scene bumped in her head, since she is using the knife.

“Elsa? Everything okay?” Anna seems a bit worried seeing her black out for that moment.

“Yeah, yeah, I was only imagining your father singing.” At the confession the redhead bursts out into a laughing catching the attention of everyone in the house, including Etta, who runs away from Rapunzel.

“My father? No, he tried only very few times to join us, but he’s totally not able to and we joking around it every time.” They come back to the pleasant silence and finish to prepare lunch.

In the meanwhile the others decide to switch on the playstation, after the owner’s say-so, and they choose to play with Mortal Kombat for a while, just to spend a bit of time. Between chit-chats, laughs, friendly insults, fatal hits, victories, losses, the group seems to come along more and more, at times it doesn’t look like they are grown-ups people in the paper. There are those moments where you realize you are in the _car_ driving to _work_ , when it seemed just a few days earlier to be at school studying and trying to do your best to bring a good score at home to your parents and to show them you’re able to do what you want to do. The job you didn’t know you could find,  the house and the personal life you have always dreamed about, the independence so craved, the responsibilities that have always made you very nervous to deal with, the company after the never-ending solitude, the friendships and the love when you’ve almost gave up. Elsa looks at the living room and sees those four people, special and important in her life. The one who’s always been there, like Punzy and Marshall, and the one who came along later, Flynn and Kristoff.

 _‘Life has always some surprises in store for us, uh? If at first I didn’t like them.. now I can’t wait for the next one.’_ Then the blonde look beside her and see the one who made possible for her to smile again at life.

Rapunzel decides to stand up and leave the _children_ playing with the PS3 and join those two in the kitchen.

“How is it going on here?”

“Ehy, everything’s fine! Back there? Have they finished to make my controllers’ batteries flat or..?”

“Nope, not at all.. it looks like they’re sixteen once again, but at least they haven’t destroyed anything yet.” At this Elsa pretends to take a breath of relief, while Anna, just like Punzy, smiles simply.

Once the lunch is ready everyone take their seats at the table, set earlier with the help of each one while the chicken was in the oven with the potatoes.

“Okay, let’s see who made the best meal!!” Kristoff almost scream while sitting next to Marshall and looking at the two young women bringing the food.

When the blonde notices what there’s to eat he’s a bit confused. “Mh.. I thought it should have been like masterchef, Elsa, have you done only the salad?” he arches his eyebrow.

“Well.. you see.. let’s say something took our minds off.. we haven’t took seriously the _challenge_.. I’m sorry guys, we thought to prepare simply something to eat together and well.. the other time you tried my cook, today Anna’s.” The doctor smiles and places the bowl with the mixed salad she made: different kind of salads, like lettuce, iceberg and corn salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and mozzarella.

“Exactly.. just try what I made and then maybe..  we always could the challenge again, this time seriously! Nothing is on the way, isn’t it?” Anna smiles at everyone hopeful in a positive answer, which comes not after long. She puts the filled chicken in a corner of the table in order to cut it, as soon as the blade on the meat,  Marshall stands up and stops the girl, offering to take care of it by himself.

Everyone’s given their slice of chicken, with some potatoes and salad, there’s who drinks wine and who simply water, everything joints together by a nice atmosphere, despite the fact the weather is ugly and cold outside, in the inside of those four domestic walls  there’s a nice warm and lovely mood.

“Well, I have to say.. I was expecting a drier chicken.. well done cousin!”

“Kristoff, why don’t you say how things really are? You are the one who manage to dry everything, you’d be able to dry even a watermelon.. someone could even think you’re responsible for the global warming.” Anna replies joking as she usually do with him.

“We are lucky that at least there’s someone who is really able to cook.. congratulation girls, it’s really great!” Punzy says, with the corner of her eye she finds a hungry Flynn, not that it’s new, and she shakes her head. “Why don’t you act like that whenever I cook?” at the question the fiancé finishes to swallow and answers.

“Mh.. you cook always, I’m used to and they’re really good.” After a split of second he realizes what he has just said and how it could sound. “With that I don’t mean you can’t cook! If I hadn’t a good metabolism, you’d have left me for how much I’d have eaten your delicious dishes.” Rapunzel would like to pretend to be a bit upset, but she chooses to smile simply. _‘He tried to make up at least..’_

Everyone finish eating while talking about everything and nothing, trying to avoid the topic of work, so they focus on the private life of each one. Marshall like always is keeping everything for himself, without sharing any kind of personal information. Even Elsa, who is something like his daughter, doesn’t know certain thing, not that she’s ever asked the question.

“So Kristoff, tell us something.. how are things going on in that field?” Flynn asks him winking and the blonde blushes immediately.

“Ehm.. everything’s fine..?”

“It’s a question or a statement? Oh come on! How are things with Mandy? Tell us!!” Anna asks this time, after all she has always seen them good together and hopes they’ll be a couple soon.

“What to say.. everything’s fine,  I think is right to say we are dating and.. yesterday we went out for dinner, we had spent the evening together, romantic.. and well.. it went good!” the red on his face becomes always more evident, all of that attention on him, he’s not used to and of course is not a everyday-thing that he finds himself surrounded with that number of people listening and asking him something about his personal life all at once. Kristoff isn’t in lack of friendships and he’s not that kind of introvert person, yet, when Mandy’s topic is on, it’s like he becomes a totally different person. Clearly love makes everyone a bit more childishly, shy, embarrassed, euphoric, with their mind totally somewhere else and with that hormonal storm, that it was supposed to be dealt with during the years.

“However, I’m not the only one who has spent the evening with someone special.. what about you my dear little cousin Anna?” Kristoff shifts the attention on the redhead in order to free himself from that situation that was putting him uncomfortable, even if nobody hasn’t started with some questions, like Flynn, who had something in mind but it wasn’t possible for him to ask, and for that reason he snorts and immediately he receives a jab by his fiancé in order to tell him to stay quiet and be polite.

Like Kristoff earlier, Anna has his same reaction, a moment of awkward silence and the cheeks are starting to gain colour, but she’s not the only one. In the same room, at the same table, there’s that _special person_ with whom she’s spent the last evening. And like the redhead, her face matches the other woman’s. Both doesn’t know if, how, what and who should answer, Rapunzel, who was watching the younger and was smiling at the reaction, she finds herself to switch her attention from her to her cousin and the brunette’s smile changes completely: if at first it was an innocent act, now it isn’t. She already has an idea of what might have happened, she hasn’t had the time to talk properly with her cousin, so she can’t be sure, but seeing how the two are interacting with each other without talking, just make sense. So, the brunette decides to step in.

“Even if we’d like details, or at least I’d be curious to know them.. it’s okay if you don’t elaborate, tell us how it was the evening, only if you want to, of course!”

“Wonderful, amazing, beautiful, breathtaking, fantastic.. and so much more!” without thinking Anna starts saying the first things that come up in her mind and, as it was expected, those words make even more colourful the blonde’s face, that it’s impossible not to see it. “I mean.. it was nice. There was fun, let’s say there wasn’t time to be bored.. the only sad thing? It was over too soon..”

“You know how it is said.. when you’re having fun, the time fly by.” Flynn comments winking and after a few second he checks at Punzy and he’s relieved to not meet a “punishment”.

Despite the fact it was untold who was this _special person_ , everyone knows very well who was it, but oddly nobody says anything. Or at least not in front of them all.

When the topic changes, Elsa decides to put away the dishes, since the lunch was over and they were starting to move to the living room. Her cousin helps her and just like some evening earlier, they are alone in the kitchen.

“I’m happy for you.” The brunette starts.

“Excuse me?”

“Last night, Anna and you.. I’ve noticed that the memory made her feel good, so I can only assume that you-”

“Okay, okay! Got it.. thanks!” The blonde stops her immediately knowing what she was up to. “Yes, it was just like she said, you know? I’m happy and.. I think you were right..” she starts to wash the last dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. “I think I’m starting to heal, slowly, but it’s working.”

“I haven’t any doubt, you know what they say about the redhead, don’t you?” Punzy’s tongue comes out of her lips. “And then.. I’m sure she can’t wait for the second time. I bet that you’re waiting too, I don’t know why but I have the feeling that you two if put in the situation, you wouldn’t come out the bed or at least the house, no matter what.”

Elsa thinks about it for a moment, she thinks again at those moments spent in her room, at that will to keep going and staying with Anna, without having to say goodbye to her in order to her to come back home. It’s not something about passion or attraction, but it’s about that complicity they’ve found under the blankets, so many feeling and emotions you can share with that simple act of love. Yes, she believes that it could end like her cousin says. Her eyes are searching for those that belongs to the person she’s falling deeper and deeper in love and as soon as they find each others, she feels that soft warm comes over internally, she can’t help but smile and remember herself how much it was nice feeling her in her arms.

“That’s the reason why.. the way you look at each other. I think you know it and you understood it, Elsa. That’s love, not only attraction.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I am so sorry for the long wait.. I finished my exams (finally) and I tried to write the new chapter, it was really difficult.. I restarted it almost 4 times! And I'm not sure of the outcome.. My brain doesn't want to cooperate with me in these days, I don't know if it's because of the heat of these days here in Italy, or because of lack of exams until september.. well anyway! I hope you'll enjoy this little chapter. Thanks for the patience!
> 
> Have a nice day!


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

“So.. you’re saying that the investigation is still on, but you already have some ideas of who’s responsible of Mr. Southerisland’s poisoning, am I right?” Kai asks at the detective Philip Smith, who’s in charge of this case.

“Exactly, in jail there are criminals of all kinds, but those who are the most hated are pedophiles and rapists. It’s not as rare as someone might think, it’s common situations like this. We have even found some connections between the convicts, one of Mr. Southerisland’s victims has a brother and fate wants that he’s in jail too, to be precise, in the cell next to your patient. He’s the main suspect, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be any other, after all the poison it was brought from the outside, that means there must be at least two people involved, if not more.”

Kristoff stays quiet listening to those man’s words and meditates on Hans’ medical records, there’s something off.

“Mh.. The lab analysis shows that the amount of poison seems to have been taken in more than once, is it possible that it may have been a continuous poisoning?”

“Dr. Bijorman, are you saying that they wanted to make him suffer slowly?”

“I think it’s a possibility we should consider, I’ve spoken with  the prison’s doctor and he told me Southerisland, despite his first check, seemed he was starting to feeling bad, but he thought it was the flu, since in those days there were some cases of influence, so he didn’t give much thought about it.”

“This means that there could be more suspected than we were thinking..” Smith checks his watch on his wrist and starts standing up. “Thanks for these new information,  they are really useful, I wish you a good day.”

This working Monday seems to be quiet for Elsa and that makes her a bit on the alert. She spent the rest of her weekend with her cousin and her fiancé, before they left, she drove them to the airport and after a long, emotional and a lot embarrassing good bye for the blonde, the young couple left for the terminal. If she has to be completely honest with herself she is sorry for their leaving, she was getting used to their presence and it is always nice having someone around with whom spend the hours. After a long time she feels relaxed, happy, light, calm and she likes this feeling of wellbeing,  she’d like that it would last long but she knows that working in a working environment like hers  doesn’t make it that possible. Nothing less, a break it is always good for your wealth.

She’s heading towards Kai’s office to discuss a procedure that it was appointed to a patient of hers, but she isn’t that sure it’s the right choice for him.

At the same time, detective Smith exits from the office and he’s about to take out his mobile phone from his pocket when he collides with an absent and careless doctor.

“Oh excuse me-”

“Sorry-” they say at the same time raising their eyes.

“Doctor Winters?” Smith looks closely at the young woman in front of him and he is surprised and with his mouth wide open in recognizing her, just like her.

“Detective Smith! I’m so sorry.. I haven’t totally seen you..” after a moment of silence while their eyes are locked on each others, Elsa notices the papers that are now all over the floor and she knees to take them back, the same action is done by Smith.

“I didn’t know you had a shift today, how are you doing here? Recently, I’ve heard from your lawyer Snow.”

“Everything is fine, the working environment is much better. If I may, why have you talked with Marshall?”

“Oh you know.. after the arrival of Mr. Southerisland in this structure. There’s an investigation going on the cause he’s under hospital care.” The woman stays quiet trying to recollect her thoughts  on why the police is involved.

“I know that it’s about a convict but I didn’t think it requested looking into it. Of course I am not aware of the medical condition of Mr. Southerisland, but from what I’ve heard it was something like a sudden illness.”

“I can’t divulge any kind of information during the investigation.. but don’t worry he can’t do anything to you. Not anymore and with the current precautions involved you don’t even risk to have contact with him casually. I have to go back to the office now, take care and have a good day.” He takes his leave placing an hand on her shoulder and giving a little reassuring smile. Elsa says bye back and the man starts to walk towards the elevator.

Anna is with her mother leaving the elevator in order to pay a visit to her father when the run-in between the doctor and the detective happens. The two Summers women keeps their distance and immediately the redhead notices the man’s badge on his belt, but it’s not that that makes her curios, it’s the fact that those two seems to know each other and there’s at least a bit of confidence between them, seeing how he hasn’t any problem in placing his hand on the blonde’s shoulder, who usually isn’t up to have some contact with strangers. Now she’s curious to know what happened between the two of them. She remembers the story about the scar, so it seems legit after the blonde called out for help someone could have asked what happened and then called the police, probably. So maybe that could be the reason. But why is he here? Leaving her father’s office?”

“Elsa, it’s a pleasure seeing you again.” Gerda comes closer to the blonde to greet her while her daughter stays behind with her feet and thoughts.

“Mrs. Summers, hello. How are you?” she smiles politely at her and she notices Anna at the woman’s back. “Anna, you are here too?” but the redhead seems to be in her own world  and she doesn’t realise of anything.

And if it isn’t enough, the door opens, Kai and Kristoff comes from the inside of the room finishing a conversation.

“-so we keep doing that and in the meantime every lab analysis goes to the station.”

_‘Elsa. Police. Scar. What.. –Kristoff? Something is off! Wait..’_

“Oh my women, what a lovely surprise.” Kai notices in a blink of the eyes his wife and daughter and only after he looks over Elsa. “Dr. Winters, how can I help you?” in front of the chief of surgery there’s a lot of people, and this commotion doesn’t pass unnoticed by the other employee of the hospital.

“It’s about of a patient, if you don’t mind, I’d take from you only 10 minutes.” The man sends a glare who ask for understanding from his wife and nods at the doctor, pointing at the door office.

While the two surgeon are inside, Kristoff, his cousin and his aunt are sitting in the hall and start talking about everything and nothing.

“So, why are you here? Today you don’t have a session, if I’m not mistaken..”

“Nope, today nothing, but mom and I were starting getting bored at home so we decided to come here and see dad.”

“Ah, I see..” the blonde has found out only the evening of the past Saturday, the one they had the masterchef-style challenge at Elsa’s, that his aunt knows about his cousin and boss. At first he was surprised by the news, but the redhead was more surprised when he replied with _“Finally! Poor aunt.. she was almost dying from the wait!”_ Clearly Anna was really oblivious that her mother _knew_ about her. Nevertheless,  there’s still a big step to make, telling it to Kai. They haven’t found the better way and moment to tell him yet, even if there isn’t one.

“Why were you in the office with dad? Have you messed up something?”

“What? No, no! We were talking about my patient, but nothing I can tell you, as you know well.” He smiles at her and starts to stand up.

“I’m sorry, but I have to go and do some exams, see you later at lunch if you’re still here!”

“Sure, we’ll let you know. Bye and be good!” Anna follows with her eyes her cousin, she keeps thinking about what she saw earlier. She wants to know what’s happening, but it’s her place to pry into this matter?

It’s Anna Summers, so of course  it’s pointless asking that question, since she’s nosy.

At the same time in Kai’s office, Elsa has offered another procedure for her patient and her chief has decided to give her this chance and do as she thinks it’s right.

The blonde is unsure if asking him about the detective, but she knows too well she won’t and can’t leave with any kind of information. The man notices her silence, but not the one that means the conversation is over and it’s time to be dismissed, but the reflective one, the uncertain one.

“I think you’ve seen that there was the detective Smith. And from what I’ve understood, h was in charge of your case and so you know him.” when he sees that the blonde’s eyes raising and meeting his own, he understands. “I’d like you to not worry about anything, Mr.Southerisland can’t hurt you in any way.” For Elsa it seems like a déjà-vu. “Your only concern should be do your job and take care of the people under your care, and I’m sure you’re totally able to do so.” With that, the young surgeon nods and stands up in order to make her rounds. She thinks that distract herself and dig in her job may be helpful, but she can’t shake that feeling off, the one that tells her that something could go wrong. _‘Nah, maybe it’s just because of having seen Smith.’_

Everyone has its own work to do during the morning and the break hour is clocking by and for the moment it seems everything is doing just fine. Kai is enjoying the presence of his wife and daughter, who after a short while leaves her parents alone.

Anna was bored, that’s why she’s in the halls of the hospital with only the company of her own thoughts that doesn’t want to shut up not even for just a second.

She keeps remembering the face and badge of the policeman, Elsa’s face, she tries to assemble the pieces of that puzzle. While she’s going around without a destination at one point she notices a detail: the patient of his cousin, it is his first one and from what she knows, he’s not an easy one, _and_ , an unforgettable detail, Elsa _couldn’t_ be on the case, that happens only with relatives, but from what the redhead knows the blonde doesn’t have no one in the nearby. _‘There was something else.. but I can’t manage to remember what..’_

“I don’t care how many time you tell me!! I want to see her!! I have to see her and make her pay!!”

“Mr. Southerisland, if you don’t calm down right away you’ll receive a nice electric shot.”

“I don’t fucking care, now you make me stand and you take me to Wint-” and the shouts are stopped by a sudden and short scream followed by silence.

“I really have no idea how you can do it.. having to deal with those kind of people.. I couldn’t do your job.” Kristoff confesses at one of the officers, who just smiles.

“Well, your job is to save lives and our job is to have to keep an eye on those who have taken or damaged lives. Everyone has its own, doctor.”

The young surgeon exits from the room  and takes a deep breath of relief, it doesn’t matter if his patient’s heart had failures because of the poisoning, he doesn’t care much that right now he’s unconscious because of the taser.

 _‘At least now there’s a bit of silence and maybe this headache will go away..’_ the blonde rises his gaze after closing the door behind himself and he finds a familiar face.

“Anna? What are you doing here?”

“I was around.. I don’t even know where I am, I was lost in thought.. that was you patient?”she asks with wide open eyes. “Really difficult to handle..”

“Yeah.. look, when I come back home from the shift I’m always KO, I hope that he can be discharged  soon, I can’t take it anymore..” he says exasperated.

“But does he have a problem or.. he’s just like that?” curious, she tries to nothing take quick peek of the folder Kristoff has in hand, even if she doesn’t understand of medical terms, she likes to try to find out the meaning of every specific word.

“no, no.. he’s just like that, he has just done.. ah, I can’t tell you I’m sorry..” the blonde tries to deviate the topic of the conversation but the door opens and from the inside comes an officer.

“Doctor, excuse me if I’m interrupting, but.. you forgot these.” And he hands over some papers, right after that he returns at his place in the room and the cousins are alone again.

_‘Okay.. what’s with today? The national uniform day? There’s police everywhere!’_

“Anna, sorry I have to go to the lab to check if the test result are ready, see you at lunch, okay?”

The redhead nods and she sees him walks away, she does the same, leaving the hall and the floor, she decides to keep some company to Elsa, when she saw her earlier she doesn’t even greeted her and now she’s feeling terribly guilty about that. While she’s getting closer to the Relax Room something happens in her mind.

“Police..” she murmurs while she across the threshold. She’s happy to see the blonde already  busy in drinking her typical cup of hot tea sitting on the couch.

“Ehi!”

“Ehi, hi.” The blonde smiles warmly and she invites her to join her. As soon as the redhead is next to the doctor, she decides to let it all out.

“You know, I’ve seen Kristoff’s patient, oh well.. I’ve heard not seen seen. He must be, I don’t know, _special_? He’s driving him crazy! There were even some officers in his room.. weird thing, and you know what is even more weird? This morning I’ve seen a policeman coming out dad’s office.. but I think he wasn’t a common agent, because he wasn’t wearing the uniform, just the badge and that authoritative attitude, you know? A bit like the one my dad has.. so I think he’s someone of a certain importance. Then I saw you two together and I thought you knew each other, then I understood he was talking with my dad and Kristoff and, having noticed the condition of my cousin’s patient.. I think they were talking about him.. may he be a criminal? Uh! Do you know something? I know you’re not on the case, but at first I thought because it was a relative matter, but then-” and in that moment Anna stops herself. she realises how she’s talking too much, too quickly, without some kind of logic and most importantly, judging by Elsa’s face, without any tact. Saying her thoughts out loud and hearing them she’s became aware of the situation. Or at least, she has a more vivid and clear idea now. The blonde told her about that accident, how she got that injury, she’ not on the case, he’s not a relative and he’s clearly a criminal, the only answer? He could be the responsible. Then Anna remembers the voice of the man, right after he stopped talking and the silence went down, he was saying a name. _‘Wint-‘_

“Winters..” the redhead whispers and in that moment it is like wind cold as ice enters in the room, freezing the two young women outright and an incredible massive weight drops on both of them.

 _‘Shit.’_ They think at the same time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Hi everyone! Damn.. I'm so sorry for the wait, the terrible writer's block got me one more time! I really hope I manage to write the new chapter soon, I have my ideas, don't get me wrong, but really.. my fingers doesn't want to type how I want them too and my brain of course is in holiday.. anyway I hope you'll enjoy this new chapter and thanks for your kindly support and patience! Thank you so much, without you this story wouldn't exist.
> 
> Have a nice weekend everyone!


	31. Chapter 31

_‘Sooner or later that would have happened, what were you expecting? That it will have lasted forever..? When will you learn that life was a bitch and still is a bitch?’_ Elsa is looking at her own reflection on her bedroom’s window. She can’t rest and she’s hunted by the memories of the day which is reaching its end. She would have wanted that everything went differently, she wasn’t expecting a situation like that for sure. She wouldn’t want Anna to know the truth or to get closer to it, not like that at least, she would have preferred when she was ready herself. it hasn’t been easy for her when Kristoff and Kai found out the true story behind Hans and her. But they had to know, since how the situation is.

Looking at the brighter side, there aren’t secrets anymore between them. Everyone knows why there’s such hate on her coming from that man. When Kristoff faced the truth he was tempted to not resuscitate his patient in case he would have had another heart failure, so was Kai, he was so close to discharge and move him to another hospital because he didn’t want to have to deal with a person like that, especially if he has done something pretty serious to some of his employees or simply to some other human being.

Etta senses there’s something that is upsetting her owner, so, paw after paw, she reaches the blonde’s bed and she jumps over it, making some silence company to her and slowly she gets closer to her belly in order to give her a simple contact and warm.

The woman’s reaction isn’t immediately, it’s like she’s in some kind of trance, softly her hand  lays on the cat’s back and stays there, once in a while it makes some regular movement, but in a completely absent way. Her mind is totally in another place, remembering the day’s events.

_‘And know what the hell do I do?’ Elsa has not a single clue on what to do, she stays petrified on the couch staring with a frightened look at the redhead. ‘How much does she knows? She seems she knows he’s more than a criminal and that.. we’re connected in some way..’ the blonde tries to understand what to do, in her mind starts taking life infinite situations on how the conversation can develop. No one of each seems ending well. It won’t take long to start and panic, have her heartbeat racing, but what she’s hearing is an heart that piece by piece is shattering and she can’t, she don’t know how and what to do to stop it. She feels like she’s been betrayed, like this situation shouldn’t never been happened, like there’s something terribly wrong. She senses the urge to take and run away, leaving the girl there alone._

_“I..” words don’t come out of the doctor’s mouth. She doesn’t understand anything, it’s like anything isn’t under her control anymore._

_“Elsa.. list-” Anna tries to repair at the possible damage she thinks she has done._

_“No..no! Don’t say anything.. don’t speak.. please.” Her voice is broken, weak and trembling. She hates herself for being in this total state of panic. She stands up and with a lot of insecurity tries to place herself, tries to search where the sink is, in order to place there the mug, but as soon as she reaches it, her hands become so weak that can’t hold the ceramic object and it smashes  into pieces  on the floor in front of the sink._

_She stays frozen in place staring at her own feet for a while._

_In that moment Anna runs towards her, worried about the situation, even if she isn’t understanding anything either, she only knows that her rambling wasn’t a good thing. She picks up the fragments, the blonde is still petrified. Once they’re put in the garbage, she tries to catch the blonde’s attention placing her hand on her shoulder._

_“Elsa..  talk to me, please, what is happening..?”_

_But Elsa can’t do it. She can’t be with Anna in that moment, not with everything that is happening, it’s too much for her. It’s a too much fresh injury._

_“No.. I’m sorry.. I have to go.”_

_“Elsa, wait…!”  the younger woman tries to stop her, she doesn’t want to leave her alone, she can see how she’s broken and she wants to be helpful, even if she knows that she could be the reason why of the current situation._

_“No, Anna.. I said no.” And she runs away leaving the redhead alone and confuse._

 

“Oh Etta.. why has life to be so cruel to me..?” Tears start falling down her face followed by a pain the chest. It’s like her life is shattering in her hands, and again, she only wanted to have a bit more time.

_Running through the hospital’s hallway Elsa bumps into Anna’s mother._

_“Oh God.. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to..” the doctor apologises trying not to engage the other woman’s look._

_“Elsa, is everything alright..?” Gerda asks her sensing since from the beginning that there’s something doesn’t feel right. But the blonde shakes simply the head and she leaves, this time walking, saying her goodbye waving her hand._

_She understands she isn’t in the conditions to work, so she decides to look for Kai and ask him for a permission to leave earlier. She needs some alone time. To try to recompose herself, to find a solution._

 

Summers family is reunited in the living room, in silence. Kristoff is with them because of his uncle’s will. The day’s events have shaken everyone, no one is excluded. It’s incredible how much can happen in such a short time.

“I didn’t have any idea..” Anna keeps repeating with her head between her hands and staring at nothing. “I still can’t believe it..”

“Poor girl.. suffer so much because of that.. miserable man!” like the daughter, at hearing what happened, Gerda remained shocked, without a word. Even if the woman knows the reason why the blonde acted like that in the morning, she doesn’t believe it’s right that they know everything. In her opinion it’s something personal and it’s Elsa’s job to let other people, especially those she cares about, know about it, at her own time.

Anna should have heard the story directly from the person concerned and not from her father and her cousin. But things went like that and now there’s nothing she can do about it. It’s not like a Word page, where you can take a sentence, a paragraph and delete it forever. Life doesn’t work like that. It sucks, but that’s how things are.

 

_Kristoff finds her cousin alone in the Relax room, she’s in a completely state of absence and he doesn’t understand what happened, but when the redhead tells him the facts, he understands and he’s a bit uncertain on what to do and how do deal the situation. It’s almost lunch hour so he decides to bring Anna with himself to Kai and Gerda, who are going to the cafeteria. Once all together, after having taken something to eat and having taken a place to sit in a quiet zone, the chief of surgery breaks the silence._

_“All right, let’s cut the bull’s head, what’s happening? Between this morning and now there’s an incredible change in the atmosphere.” He rises an eyebrow scrutinizing each one. Everyone unsure about who should begin, so Gerda decides to go first._

_“Well.. I bumped into Elsa.. she seemed pretty upset about something and, I don’t know.. that left me puzzled. That’s all, she doesn’t seem herself.”_

_“Ah yes, she contacted me before, she took the rest of the day off for personal reasons.. she didn’t go into details. What about you two?”_

_“I found Anna and.. well..” Kristoff doesn’t know what to say more, he hasn’t think through about it. He can’t say that she was in the Relax, why would she be there? And he can’t say she had an argument with Elsa. He thinks about himself as a stupid for not knowing what the hell do._

_“I..” to Anna it seems like she’s still with her blonde, trying to talk to her. “I think I did something bad..”_

_Now Kai and Gerda look at her confused not understanding what their daughter is saying._

_“What do you mean, darling?” The mother says with a calm and soft voice._

_“I accidentally heard Kristoff’s patient and I wanted to investigate a bit, you know how I am, don’t you? I can’t mind my business.. knowing that Elsa wasn’t on the case I was curious to know if he was a relative or something.. then I went to the Relax, looking for her and trying to find out anything.. obviously I started talking without thinking and that’s a.. sensitive topic to her, and.. I think I hurt her. I think, I believe it’s my fault.” The redhead has a broken voice, she almost can’t say those last words and she’s about to burst out in tears. Immediately Gerda gets closer to her daughter trying to give her some comfort whispering kind things, while the husband watches the two. In the last period of time he noticed that there was a friendship that was starting to grow between her and the surgeon, he knows that the redhead is also very sensitive, despite being a talkative person that often doesn’t think before speaking, and knowing or suspecting to be the cause of someone’s sadness makes  her feel bat. But never this much._

_‘One thing at the time..’ the man thinks, then turns to Kristoff and sends him a meaningful look, that he understands without wasting any seconds._

_“I know this should be done, but I see that the situation is putting you in a difficult situation, Anna.. so after we finish our shift, we’ll talk about it at home.”_

 

Doctor Summers is still feeling _dirty_ after having shared those private information about his co-worker to his family. But something inside  told him to talk about it with his daughter, to let her know what was happening, maybe that’s because he doesn’t want to see her little girl suffers, maybe he needed to talk about it with someone. The thing is that now the secret is revealed. But at least he avoided some details, maybe that could be a point for his dignity?

_“No. It’s not. I fucked up.’_

 

Anna stands up from the couch and decides to go in her room, leaving the other alone, but her mother follows her.

“Anna, darling.. do you want to talk about it?” they sit on the edge of the bed after having closed the door.

“Mom.. he’s a monster!! Do you know that Elsa has a scar..? He did that to her!! it wasn’t enough having.. oh god mom.. how can such things happens!?” the woman doesn’t know what to say, because she doesn’t have an answer for that question. She doesn’t even know how to comfort her own daughter, she feels so powerless, she watches her crying, suffering and that makes her understand how much she care about that woman, that her feelings are truly deep.

“I don’t know why some people do certain things, I’m not going to lie to you.. I don’t understand it and probably I’ll never will, I just know that’s an ignoble thing to do. Elsa is such a good person, she didn’t deserve it, and.. I didn’t know about the scar, I think that’s what made you investigate, you wanted to know the story..”

“Yes.. I mean.. she told me something.. but not details, she told me she was trying to help someone.. God.. you should have heard the voice of that so-called man.. if he was in front of me, I wouldn’t know what I’d do to him.” The redhead’s voice shifts from sad and broken to angry and full of resentment. Even if she has just told that she’d be unsure on her actions, she know really well what she would do and a part of her really wants to face him _casually_ .

“Mom, I want to go to her.. but.. it seems she doesn’t want to talk with me.. she doesn’t reply to my texts..”

“It’s like her injury reopened, she’s hurting.. having seen that detective, your words.. made her think about something she thought she was free from.. if it was up to me, I’d drive you to her, you know? I just don’t want you to be upset if she wants to stay alone.”

“I think that if she really wants that.. I’d leave her alone.. but I just want to know if she’s okay.. I mean.. oh god I know she’s not but-”

“I understood.” Gerda smiles softly. “Take your coat.”

“But.. what about dad?” Anna asks worried and surprised.

“I’ll talk with him later, don’t worry, ok?” the woman is about to open the door when she turns for  a second. “And everything will be alright.”

 

_Once at home Elsa goes straight to bed in tears. The phone keeps vibrating during the day, it’s Anna who’s trying to reach her and know how she is. At first her first thought was that that man was calling her, but when she read the contact name was relieved. But at the same time she didn’t feel like to reply._

_Even Etta is worried and tries to make her alive again, sort of. She jumps on the furniture trying to catch her attention and to be chased after, but nothing. It’s like the blonde is a zombie now. She spends hours on the bed, between tears, shouts, silence and then everything starts again, in circle. She fell asleep maybe a few times, but not for more than an half an hour. She hasn’t even eaten anything, she’s there locked in her room facing the window and seeing how the sky loses his brightness, just the same thing that’s happening inside of herself._

_‘What the hell I’m doing!?’_ she keeps repeating in her mind. Run away. Run away from problems. Maybe  it’s something she’s always done and she never realised it. She’s afraid of dealing the past that is showing up again. She’s afraid of seeing Hans. She’s afraid of closing her eyes and finds him. She’s afraid of staying at the hospital. She’s afraid of being alone. She’s afraid. And this fear is wearing her out and it is destroying everything she managed to build. A life, a job, some friends and-

The doorbell rings. Elsa is petrified for what feels like the hundredth time that day, the rational part of her knows well that it’s not who she thinks it is, yet she’s afraid to go and see who’s there and here again, one more time, she’s asking herself that question: what does she do now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! How are you doing? I lost track of the time I said this but: I'm sorry for the late.. I had some exams to prepare for the university and it was better I stayed away from English for a while in order to prepare them.. I'm sorry but I'm done! Next week I begin my third year at university..
> 
> Anyway! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, things are getting a bit more complicated for our girls, but ehy.. that's life. I think some of you disagree with how the things went, but I had to do this, I'm sorry.. Let me know what you think about it, as always I really appreciate your comments and your support. Thank you so much!
> 
> I hope the next chapter won't take too much time.. but just know that I keep writing, so don't worry (in case you're worrying I'm leaving the story.. since I received some messages from you saying they were worried about that)
> 
> Have a wonderful weekend!
> 
> Christys


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32**

The doorbell rings one more time.

Anna is in front of the front door, her mother in the car waiting and seeing what will happen next. While she's standing right there, in front of that piece of wood, various thought cross her mind, one of them is if she's doing the right thing, after all she has noticed how the woman left and didn't look out for anyone. But from the other side, she feels the need to be next to her, to try to comfort her in some way, to help her if possible. 

On the other side of the door there's nothing more than silence. A silence that it isn't interrupted, not even by Etta that is next to her owner, who's standing a meter away from that wooden obstacle. She hears once again the doorbell, but she still seems to be in a sort of a trance. If possible her mind is empty from any type of thoughts, there isn't her usual voice inside of her. There's nothing, only the echo of the doorbell. So, like she hasn't control of her body, she gets near the  peephole of the door and looks who is on the other side. She recognises that face so familiar and so cared for. Nothing less when she's about to touch the  knob she stops herself once again and finally comes a thoughts in her mind:  _what do I do?_ She  peeks another time to see if something happened, nothing. The redhead is only sighing and she's trying to rings the doorbell again, she closes her eyes and her index goes to push the button. At this action Elsa decides to open the door. She didn't even have the  clarity of mind to go and check herself at the mirror, like she normally does before opening to someone. 

Anna stays surprised when she sees the door opens slowly and showing inches by inches that figure she hoped so much to see. The first thing she notices is how red and swollen her eyes are, that means the blonde hadn't had a nice day, like she suspected. It's like a punch in her chest seeing that face so hurt and she only would like to give her some comfort and tell her that she isn't alone any more. But she doesn't do that. She sees how Elsa avoids eye contact, her eyes are focused on the ground, not a smile, nothing. They don't exchange a single word, the only thing that happens are the seconds that pass by. 

After a bit, the blonde rises her gaze and notices a parked car in the street, she recognises it. That's the redhead's mother car, that suggests the woman is aware of what kind of relationship there's between the two. 

“Anna? What are you doing here? She asks her with a low but firm voice.

“I wanted to know how you are doing..” she confesses embarrassed. She does know she could answer her sarcastically, but she doesn't care, she wants to let her understand that despite the situation, caused by herself, the redhead worried about and cares for the other woman.

The doctor stays in silence watching her, something inside her is ready to take, scream and run away, leaving the other alone thinking about how she acted before. She feels extremely hurt, and a part of her is aware that it's not entirely the young woman's fault, but on the other side, the one with the open wound, just seeing that face and hearing those words makes her want to slam the door in her face. But something stops her from doing so. 

She opens completely the front door and steps beside, giving a voiceless signal to Anna to come inside.

Once in the house Anna feels ashamed, she knows how sensitive the situation is and, despite all the good intentions, she doesn't well know how to approach the other. The only thing she does is to follow the blonde's example, who's sitting on the couch, and she sits on the chair.

“I know.. I've done wrong.. I should have been more sensitive about the topic.. while I was talking I realized what I was staying and what was happening and..” Anna stops herself for a second looking at how the woman in front of her is staring absently the room, something like she doesn't want to listen to her, and yet she's in her house. The blonde gave her the permission to come inside and share the same air with her. “You're right..” at that she notices a change in that face that before looked emotionless. “There aren't excuses.. nevertheless I'm sorry for my behaviour and for hurting you..”

Silence.

This is the answer she receives for a couple of minutes. The two women are standing right there, almost in front of each other, they don't meet the other's eyes, they don't exchange a word, they don't move, they do absolutely nothing.

“You should be ore careful about what you say and how you say it. Even if it doesn't seem, words hurt and in some cases even more than actions.”

“I didn't know-” and there it is, Elsa's eyes meet hers with a quick movement. The thing that surprises Anna is how they are: cold. There's a lot of anger inside of them, it's like they're on war, ready to load and fire. 

“And even if you knew? That doesn't mean you can be so reckless. I don't know what you know, what you heard, what you think to know, but I do know what no matter what, before speaking it's wise to think about it, at least for a few seconds.” She stands up. “Think before speak.” She wants to be alone, she doesn't want to have company, it makes her angrier. “And to answer your question, I am not okay. How could I be? Ah, I would have liked to be alone. I thought it was clear. I didn't reply to any of your texts, didn't you catch the message?”

Anna knows she doesn't have the right to get mad, she knows what happened and she's aware that it's a delicate situation, she keeps telling herself this numerous times now, yet the blonde's behaviour is making something to her.

“After I became aware of those events between you and him, do you really believe I would have left you alone!? No! I wanted to be close to you, I know it must not be easy, but-”

“Really? Are you playing that card? What do you think you know? You said you're aware, so tell me. You believe you can put yourself in my shoes, but can you for real? Eh?” the redhead stays speechless, she almost bites her tongue in realisation of having said a stupid thing. “Like I suspected. So Anna, really, just as I told you not even 2 minutes ago: think before speak.” Elsa walks away from her and she goes to the kitchen, in front of the sink in order to try to calm herself down, she doesn't need all this excitement and it isn't good for her. It happened what she was afraid of: Anna knows everything. The things really troubles her is that she wasn't the one telling her the truth, but with all the odds it was Kristoff or her father. She thought she could trust them.

“You've right.. I should count till 10, or 20 or 30.. and yes, I can't put myself in your shoes. I was insensitive.. I believe that.. you would have preferred you were the one to tell me and I'm sorry I became aware of it like this.. the only thing I want.. I wish.. is to understand what is going on with you, if I can be of any help..” she doesn't want all this anger, she doesn't want the situation to be this bad, she wants to be helpful, to do something and that something will be told by the blonde, because Anna isn't sure she could be make the right choice, she's never been in that kind of situation so she hasn't any kind of idea of what to do and how to behave, talk or whatever.

“I don't think you can do much right now..” she confesses still facing the sink. 

“I understand..” Anna stands up catching the hint the visit is near the ending. “So, I believe it's time for me to go..”

“Yes.” The doctor turns around and looks at her. “If you don't mind.. I'd like some space and time, I hope you can understand and you won't be offended if I don't reply to your texts.”

The redhead just smiles at her, but clearly isn't an happy smile, it's one of those who doesn't hide very well sadness and resignation.

“Of course..” she walks towards the door and right before touching the knob, she turns a little her face. “When you want, you know where to find me..”

Gerda's car is parked, and the older woman notices how his nephew's car isn't there any more, so she stops her daughter from getting out. Once inside they won't have this privacy anymore. While they were driving back home, the young redhead stayed silent. 

“I'm sorry Anna.. She only needs some times..”

“I know.. I know.. But.. I don't know.. I hoped I could have done more, you know? I hoped she let off steam, she talked to me. But I think everyone has their own way to deal with things, uh?” Anna closes her eyes and sighs.

“Sweetheart.. I know you don't want to tell me what happened but.. just know that with time everything go better, ok? So, have a little of patience..” the woman gets closer and gives her a soft kiss on her head. She can't do much, they can't do much if not waiting that the young surgeon manages to stitch somehow that reopened wound. 

Elsa is alone once again, a so wanted solitude while there was the other woman, yet she's missing her now. She didn't expect to see her,  least of all letting her inside. She lies on her bed facing the ceiling and thinking about the conversation with the redhead and asking herself some questions. Was she being childishly? Was she being too harsh with her? Then she realizes something: before she didn't care much about how her actions could make feel the other person, but now things changed, she is a bit changed and she starts to care about her decisions and how they can affect one particular person. Nevertheless she knows that she made the right choice for her, she needs some alone time.

She can't wait for that horrible day to end. She only asked life one thing, a conclusion and it seems it's not coming for now. Who knows, perhaps this may be the right time, after all Hans is in the hospital, not in a very good conditions, and anything could go wrong, things happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Happy New Year! And I am so sorry for the long wait... I really hope you'll enjoy the chapter and that you've spent well the holidays! I'm starting now with my new session of exams (yeah..).
> 
> Anyway! I know I've been terrible with the updates and I am so so so so sorry, but I want you to know that this story will have an end and I will update it, I hope it won't take too long, but you know.. life. And I really appreciate the fact that you are so kind and willing to wait. Thank you! I love you, really.
> 
> So, once again, happy new year! I hope your 2015 was good and I wish your 2016 will be better. Take care everyone!
> 
> Have a good day!
> 
> Christy


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33**

“Ehy no stop, stop! You can't come here, you know that!” Kristoff holds on the girl before she can enters in the room P005. In her eyes there's nothing else than rage and the blonde knows well that if she lets her go right in that instant, she will dash like a leopard on its prey, without giving it a chance.

“You need to calm down! You can't act like this, what the hell is going on with you!? You shouldn't even be here..” he distances her trying to avoid to gain any more unwanted attention. 

“I can't take it any more! You're treating this.. _thing_! He doesn't deserve it, he doesn't deserve to have all this attention and waste money! He should rot in a microscopic prison cell, without food nor water, without any medical attention! Look.. I've had it up to my fucking eyeballs!”

“Anna.. I understand you're upset but..” the redhead sends him a glare that freezes his blood in his veins. “Okay okay.. tell me what happened..?”

“Nothing.”

“It doesn't seem like nothing..”

“But it is, nothing happened. I haven't heard from her in a week.. I have no idea of how she is doing, I didn't even catch her in he hospital, I don't even know if she's working..” Anna is overwhelmed by emotions and she can't fight back her tears any more, if they're from sadness or anger is impossible to find out. “And it's all fault of that one in there!”

The cousin watches her for a few seconds as she tries to let off steam, to let fall all the tears she has, he keeps her close rubbing her back trying to comfort her.

“She's working, I don't see her much because she's always busy with her patients and I haven't had the chance to talk with her, so I wouldn't know. I only thing that working is good for her in this moment, she needs to keep her mind busy avoiding thinking about what happened. Try to be patience..” Kristoff doesn't know how to help her, he only knows that he'd prefer that things don't get worse and if the other surgeon decided to stay radio silence than there'll be a reason and maybe it's just the best choice for her for the moment.

 

During the week almost no one had contact with the blonde, as usual she arrives at work right at the clock in the morning, she checks in and starts her rounds, when lunch's hour comes she locks herself in her office, having brought her home-made lunch. She has chosen clearly the solitude road in order to deal with the situation and until she fulfills her working duties it is okay. To tell the truth nobody really seems to notice it, only a very few people has noticed that something is off with the blonde, but no one has done nothing yet, no one is doing something for her.

Anna can't stand staying in her little world by herself doing nothing any longer, she feels the need to do something. 

 

It has been an hour since the cousins have exchanged those words and now in the Relax room, the redhead is thinking about what to do, in the meantime her cousin is in the OR helping a co-worker. She looks around remembering the week passed by, the previously days and that eventful evening. She's alone in an environment that doesn't belong to her, she doesn't work there, she doesn't have a valid and real reason to be there so often, yet she feels almost like she's at home because of the people there.

Next to her door there's the label saying which hospital's room is,  _P005_ . It doesn't have anything peculiar if not being in separated ward and having some guards watching over it.  _Casually_ in that exact moment they aren't there, so anybody could go unnoticed in the room.

Keeping always an eye in the hallway she opens slowly the door and as soon as she's in she closes it behind her. She gets near the bed where the patient lays, apparently sleepy, she watches closely that face, she doesn't know if it's because she's aware of the actions made by him, but it has something off, something sinister, charming yes, but it still is covered by a thin layer of darkness.  _“Must be the sideburns.. they aren't trustworthy.”_ she thinks getting closer carefully. In her mind runs images of him carrying out violent actions on some women, she imagines how much he might have enjoyed those moments, how he might have felt powerful, invincible and able to submit at his will anyone he wanted. As soon as Elsa comes in her mind something in the redhead clicks. A rage she believes she has never felt before.

Hans had recently heart surgery, in the aftermath of another heart failure, labs' work is slow since in that week there was a viral epidemic case and they had to put an entire floor in quarantine in order to contain and to find out a cure as soon as possible. As a consequence all the other labs exams were moved to the background, as the one regarding the creation of the antidote of the poison used on him in prison.

Having had a surgery he has a surgical wound in the healing process, just as Anna notices it, after wearing some gloves on, she puts her hand on and starts making pressure on it, in the hope of hurting him. As always Hans is handcuffed on the bed because he's always very animated and inclined to be violent towards the nurses and Kristoff himself. Nobody like this arrogance of him, but since he's a patient they can't do much about it. Anna doesn't care, she doesn't care being there, doing whatever she plans to do, when she shouldn't. A small part of her tells her to be careful, to stop until she can, to leave, because she could face not so pleasant consequences. But that little voice goes completely unnoticed and overstepped by another, full of rage and hate for that unknown being.

“You do not deserve to be here.” says the girl with gritted teeth and giving more pressure on the bandage over the injury.

“What the fuck..!?” Hans wakes up feeling a weight on his chest and a increasing pain. He notices right away the feminine figure, he doesn't recognise her, he doesn't think he's ever seen her before and she isn't wearing a white coat. “What the hell are you doing!? Who are you!? Leave me alone!!”

“Shut up! You have no right to say anything! This is nothing compared to what who knows how many women had felt!” the redhead doesn't see reason, the other hand is ready to take position into a fist directed on the man's abdomen.

“Whore!! What I'd do to you right now!” he screams struggling, he can't really move being cuffed, but he manages to distances himself from the hand on his chest. But this doesn't stop nor scares the girl, who smacks sonorously his face in a split of second. It stars getting redder showing the shape of fingers and a palm. “As soon as I'm free you're done, bitch!”

“You're just a bastard! They should have killed you in jail, not sending you here in hospital! You don't deserve to live.” Noticing he starts moving his legs trying to knee her, she punches his junk which makes him scream in pain. She doesn't stop there, she keeps punching him, in his abdomen, his side. She wants him to pay. She feels an indescribable hate for a man who hasn't done anything to her in the first place. She doesn't realise that giving the position she's right in that moment she has her defence wide open and that gives Hans access to knee her a few times. Everything is messy, full of screams, of insults. Neither of them is aware that after some minutes the guards are back and are separating them. They're completely out of control and not managing to calm them down, the two police officers decide that this is the case to use the taser on both. They lose consciousness instantly.

 

“Damn it.. I can't believe she has done something like that! Stupid, stupid, nothing less than stupid!” Kristoff mutters to himself while is headed to his cousin. He was drinking a coffee with Mandy when his pager buzzed telling him to go to his patient. He arrived when everything was done and his cousin was unconscious in a guards arms. Once they told him what happened and giving them directions about bringing her in a room, he went to inform Kai. His uncle wasn't happy about it, that event complicates their relationship with the patient and his lawyer. The hospital may risk to have to deal with a charge and a possible compensation for the damages, unless they manage to find an easy way out before the lawyer is notified.

Kristoff is at the beginning of the hall and at its there's his cousin's room, and he sees a figure in the distance, he keeps walking towards it trying to figure out who is, but it goes away immediately, using the other exit and avoiding the young man.

The blonde enters the room and sits besides the bed waiting for the girl to wake up.

 

“Morning.” he tells her not seeming very happy.

“Oh..ehy..!” Anna blushes immediately knowing she's in trouble, she' expecting a harsh scolding but nothing for now, her cousin observes her simply, without saying a word. “So..?”

“So what?”

“Aren't you going to tell me I shouldn't have done what I've done? That I was wrong, I haven't thought before acting and now problems could only get worse?”

“Mh.. it seems like you've already told everything.” Replies. “I won't say you did good, you're smart enough to understand the consequences of your actions. I'll just say.. if I was in you position, I'd do the same. But this is not an encouragement!”

“I know..” the redhead looks over the edge of the bed. “I was just furious.. I couldn't be able to control myself. I am not sorry.. not for him at least.”

“Anyway.. next time you'll end up in a fight, started by you or not, watch out for the guard, he hit you several time on you side. Luckily it's nothing, just a few bruises, nothing compared to him. His stitches broke and I had to patched him up again.” Kristoff checks his pager that buzzes and sighs. “I have to go.. Prepare yourself for a nice chat with your father. He's pretty nervous today.”

 

Alone in the room Anna takes the chance to relax a bit. The anger is still there, a bit less comparing before. Being able to take it out on someone helped her. Nevertheless she knows she had done a stupid thing and she'll be lucky if she doesn't go in court, probably her father is already taking care of everything.

 

_ Toc toc _

 

“ _Here he comes.. Let's get ready!”_ the redhead takes a deep breath and gives the ok to come in, certain it's her father.

“I know what happened, the all hospital is talking about it.”

Anna doesn't believe in her eyes and in her ears. She's almost in tears, she can't even speak a single word.

“I don't know if it was stupid or brave what you've done. I didn't know you could be able to do something like that..” there's a moment of silence and then a question, with such a low tone that is difficult to hear. “Why..?”

The redhead tries to compose herself, she managed to hear what she asked and decides to answer her without going around it.

“I was blind from anger, I couldn't bare the situation any longer. Not hearing from you, knowing he's in the hospital just making problems. I had to do something..” she sighs for a moment before continuing. “I know that now I've only made things worse but.. I couldn't be able to stop myself and even if I was, I don't think I'd have stopped.”

Elsa isn't sure about what to do or say. She wasn't even sure to go and see how she was and asking for some motivations. Earlier she was at her door and saw her sleeping, she was debating if come inside and wait for her to wake up, but than she saw Kristoff and she went away. Now there she is. After a week they finally talk to each other, they look at each other, they are in the same room. Yes, there is still a bit of tension between the two, Elsa is still hurt but not like before. Being full immersed in work in order to distract herself and get a grip on her life helped. She knows that maybe she hadn't handled everything so well, but it is also true that it's her first time being in a situation like that and she doesn't know how to deal with it. In these days she spent some evenings with Marshall, trying to figure things out. It was him to suggest her to work, she would have liked to take some days off, but her friend advised her to return working and not having contact with the redhead until she was ready to do so.

Now she's in front of her, with a minimal distance between them, a bit like at the beginning of their journey. She gets closer carefully, it's like she's afraid to say or do something wrong, she doesn't know what is waiting for her, she doesn't know what the other girl is thinking. For now, the only thought in her mind is how much she missed Anna and how much she's happy to see her, despite everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Oh God.. I am terribly sorry! University is giving hell to me.. I'm so busy that I forgot.. I was so sure I had updated the story! I hope you'll forgive me with this new chapter... Again, I am so so so sorry!
> 
> Hopefully you'll like the chapter.. Thank you so much for your patience!
> 
> Take care everyone!
> 
> Christys


	34. Chapter 34

The young woman lets the answer sink in. She perfectly realize the situation, the reasons that made her act in that way, despite that everything is more complicated than before. Anna will be lucky to not be reported, but there isn't any certainty about it. There's a big chance that Hans talks with his lawyer and he may convince him to press charges, plus it's wise to keep in mind that she's a private citizen, apparently without any reason for those actions. Nothing seems to be at her side. There's only to hope that the lawyers won't be involved on the matter.

Silence falls on them, Anna is embarrassed by the situation and tries to avoid looking at her, but the fact they haven't seen or talked to each other pushes her curiosity and her emotions to prevail, therefore her eyes occasionally lay on that figure only a few meter away.

The blonde is considering what to do, she remembers that Marshall told her, that she shouldn't be involved in any way with Hans or anything regarding him, therefore she doesn't really know how to handle this particular situation.

"How are you..?" the redhead asks looking at her shyly and with a bit of embarrassment. The question leaves her confused, asking herself why.

"Shouldn't it be me asking that..? After all you're the on in a hospital bed.. again.." At the answer she's smiling nervously, she knew she should have expected a reply like that.

"Well.. like my medical record says, I'm fine, nothing broken."

"You should be careful anyway.. I think you know the possible consequences of your actions." Despite she doesn't have any intention on lecturing her, since she knows pretty well that the girl in front of her is mature enough to comprehend the situation by herself, she feels like she needs to tell her it.

"Yeah, I know.. There won't be a second time." She tries to reassure her with a firm voice.

After a few minutes she breaks the silence once again between the two. "Despite the circumstances.. it's nice to see you.."

"Me too.." Elsa replies with a broken voice.

"I am sorry.."

"You've already said that.."

"I know.. but I feel like I should say it again, especially after what happened now. I know I've made things worse but.. I do hope to not have caused any problems or damage to you.." she's genuinely worried about it, she doesn't want to worsen anything between them.

"Honestly I don't know.. Later I'll speak with Marshall.." at the name Anna's eyebrows frown.

"Marshall?"

"Yes.. he's my lawyer." The revelation takes her by surprise for a moment, than she remembers that evening at Elsa's and how everyone kept saying how much Elsa has changed.

"May I ask you something..? If you don't want to reply, there is no problem of course."

The blonde is reluctant but nods anyway.

"Does Rapunzel know about..?"

"No. Nobody knows, they made sure my name was clear." She answers quickly trying to end the conversation. "However I'd like to thank you for giving me the time I needed.."

Anna lets escape a small smile, maybe a bit sad, she won't say for sure how much it hurt not being able to speak nor see her.

"I would have done anything to help you, so.. there's no need to thank me. Just.. how is it going on now?"

_'A part of me is still hurt.. but the other one wishes only to take you, hug you and feel you close, make up for lost time..-'_ "It's.. better, step by step." Elsa freezes, she doesn't manae to say what she really wants to, but subconsciously, or maybe not, she gets closer, feeling that desire prevailing inside of her. The same little voice that kept tormenting her for the entire past week makes its presence again, trying to persuade the blonde in talking with the redhead, in confide to her everything she's been through, both those alone days and the past. A part of her conscience knows she has overreacted, but at this point what is done it's done and now she knows that it's better to move on. _'The past has the power to harm only if you let it'_ those are the words said not even too long ago, and she thinks that it may be the case to start listening to them for real. That day's events served the perfect occasion for the young doctor to collect her courage to interact with the other girl.

"It's nice to know you're good.."

"It takes more than that to knock me out." The redhead tries to lighten up the mood realising that Elsa is debating with herself internally. Knowing that the situation has gotten a bit better lightens her heart, but despite that she's feeling a burden, a twisted shadow that threateningly follows her step by step: the fear of making another harmful mistake to her, but this time something irreparable. She knows that if she lets herself sink in this vicious cycle she'd ruins everything, so she tries to let it go, she tries to enjoy the moment, to nurture this relationship that is so important to her and she'd do anything to not endanger it.

"I'd prefer not to find out it.. I believe your word." Elsa smirks, getting always closer. "Even if.."

"Even if..?"

"I think I know what could knock you out.."

"Yeah? Tell me if you're so sure." She looks challengingly at her without hiding her curiosity.

By now she's at the right closeness, she bends over slightly in order to whispering in her ear.

"Boxes.." the answer leaves the redhead dumbfounded. At the moment she can't make sense about it and then she remembers.

"No! That was an exception! I lost my balance.. That doesn't count." She starts to blush, she doesn't really know why, after all there's nothing to be ashamed of, those things happen and in the end that fall led her to know a very unique cardiac surgeon.

"I consider it valid." The two smile, forgetting they're in a hospital room, trying only to relax themselves and enjoy that calm between them.

They spend a good 15minutes joking about that accident and how much Anna is clumsy. This lightness in the air is good for both, to let off some steam, to keep aside the worries, the guilt.

 

Elsa is found seated on the bed when Kai enters in the room knocking gently before opening the door fully and immediately he notices that none of them heard him. His daughter's smile surprises him, it's radiant and genuine, he hasn't seen it in a while and at the sight it warms his heart. He sees the back covered by the doctor's white coat, it's impossible to not recognize her, she's the only one in the entire hospital who has the braid in that way, and looking a little more carefully he catches his daughter's hand on top of the blonde's, which leaves him slightly dumbfounded. It isn't a everyday-thing to see some kind of physical contact between the doctor and another person. He knows that things are getting better, the friendship born with his nephew, but he can't recall having seen them hugging or packing their shoulders, therefore he's amazed seeing her apparently calm his daughter's hand contact. It's not only that little gesture that catches his attention, but being on the bed too. He knows Elsa and that she owns a rigid professional behaviour inside hospital's walls , it's one of the qualities that struck him at the moment of hiring her. He's aware about the friendship that is forming between his daughter and her, but he knows that the events of the week before have brought the two to distance themselves and leaving Anna in an almost depressive state. Not that she showed him, both her and him has the same character, they're not inclined to show their worries, precisely for this he was able to spot that something was bothering her. He's never asked her, suspecting the blonde was somehow involved. Even in that eventful evening, when his wife and her went out, he didn't pry. Once at home, Gerda simply told him they needed some fresh air and there were nothing to be worry about. Of course it wasn't the truth and he knew it. He knew and knows they went to Elsa, Anna was clearly upset about the blonde's story, knowing her he was sure that sooner or later she would have tried to contact her and comfort her, as she always does with her friends, it's in her nature. Of course he wasn't aware about her fast heartbeat in the blonde's presence, about the desire of kissing her and hold her that she was feeling, about how much she missed her and how much she wants to spend some time with her, forgetting everything else.

Kai decides to make his existence clear by clearing his voice.

"Dr. Winters, Anna. Sorry for the interruption."

The two startle hearing his voice. The redhead's smile changes in a nervous and embarassed one instantly, while Elsa jumps like a spring standing up and stiffening in front of her boss, avoiding his gaze.

"Dr. Summers."

"Ehy dad!" they exclaim in unison. The blonde senses he's there to talk with his daughter about the recent event and thinks it's best to leave them alone.

"It's better for me to go, I should check on some patient in the ICU." She turns to Anna making a short nod and than she stars leaving.

"Doctor."

"Doctor." Once she's out, Kai walks nearer to his daughter and watches her carefully. Anna swallows hard and panic raises. "How are you?" he asks calmly taking the chair and sitting.

"Fine.." she answers following with her eyes his actions, she sees a folder in his hands. "Listen..-"

"What was going on in your mind?" he asks strictly while he opens the folder. "For how I see it, there's two possibilities. You can get out of this making your apologies with his lawyer's presence and a few witnesses, they'd be us of the internal commission of the hospital. It would be better if you had a lawyer, I don't think you have one. The other option.. If he presses charges, you have to go and testify and it won't be pretty for you. You haven't any kind of relation with him and apparently neither a valid reason for the assault, considering his a patient in this hospital, in a restricted area, supervised 24/7 by police officers." Her father sighs heavily. "I know you, that's not you. Tell me, why?"

"I am sorry.. I didn't know what I was doing until I was doing it. I lost control.. It wasn't my intention to create problems. I wasn't thinking and I admit it.."

Kai stays still looking at his daughter, she isn't telling everything and he doesn't understand why. He wishes only to understand and help her if possible.

"Ripped off some stitches, a few bruises, but lucky for you, nothing too serious. Try to be careful, deal? As soon as possible go and talk with the internal commission, and you should look for a lawyer, just in case. If you prefer I'll find one myself."

"No.. I'll take care of it, I've given you enough to worry about. Sorry." Kai nods and he stands up, leaving her the discharge papers to sign.

"Your mother is coming. She'll bring you back home." And with that he exits.

Anna signs the papers and while she's getting dressed she keeps praying she won't get in troubles, to not jeopardize Elsa's freedom and safety. She thinks she can handle the idea of having to deal with the situation personally, but creating, or rather perpetuate an unpleasant situation for the blonde? She wouldn't forgive herself. Just like she doesn't forgive herself for the prior week, in particular not knowing to think before talking.

She feels like she has a huge weight on her shoulder, a part of her knew from the start that if she'd put her foot in that room, she would have had to deal with serious consequences. Yet she wasn't able to stop herself and know she has to find a solution to all this.

Looking at the bright side, something that she's told herself to always do no matter what, there was finally a reconnection with Elsa and she's very happy about that, she managed to see her, talk with her. She was happily surprised there was that quiet and light moment between them, like nothing happened. She missed her very much during those days. It's odd, after all it's not like it's been a month or more, she's never been like this. With her everything is different, her feelings are deep and knowing she hurt her made her really upset. Everyday she woke up and hoped to find a text, insults would have been fine too, yet nothing, the day went by without any sign of her. Once evening came around she was so tempted to write to her, but she promised to give her some space, to wait until she was the one reaching for her when ready. Her mother tried to calm her, to distract her and let off some steam as much as possible, while keeping her father in the dark, she wasn't up to talk with him, she didn't know what to say and most of all she didn't have any idea about his reaction. But for now, the only thing that matters is knowing Elsa is feeling better, step by step as she said, but at least there's been an improvement. When the blonde left her earlier she nods at her, Anna would be ready to swear it was like a promise, a promise to keep in touch and indeed, while she is waiting for her mother to arrive, she receives a message. At firs sight it is nothing so special, yet reading it puts a big smile on her face.

"Anna? Are you ready?" Gerda asks her daughter while knocking on the door.

"Yeah, one sec, putting on the jacket and I'm out." she puts her phone on the bed while she opens the closet. The screen is still unlocked showing the text that was arrived not only a few second earlier.

" _Thanks."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am terrible person.. I am so sorry for the long wait!!! Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter and.. soon another one will arrive! As soon as I finish to translate it! I was so busy that I've only written the new chapters in italian, I'm sorry!  
> For those who are interested.. I think I'll put this story on Wattpad (username Christyslsb), it's already on Fanfiction. net .. And for those who speaks or knows italian or are studying it you'll find the story on EFP with the name "L'amore non è una cosa che si pianifica" (an italian fanfiction website, it requires subscription, my username is the same, Christyslsb).
> 
> Anyway.. I hope you do enjoy it and thank you so much for the patience, you're wonderful!! 
> 
> I'm sorry for the possible mistakes...xD
> 
> Have a great day,
> 
> Christys


	35. Infos

I know it’s been a long time but I wanted to tell you that I’m having a rough time (personally) and it’s difficult for me to write the new chapters.. I hope everything will be ok soon, but for a while there won’t be any new updates. I am so sorry, truly. I want you to know that I do intend to finish the story, so don’t worry about that, I’m not abonding it, I just need a break.. Again.. I am sorry.

Thank you for everyone who's still waiting.  

**Author's Note:**

> So.. what do you think? Feel free to let me know what your opinions are and here the link of the story in Fanfiction.net : https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10576277/1/Our-Hearts-Will-Tell


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